Barrasso: Democrats’ One-Size-Fits-All Health Care Scheme Will Cost Americans $34 Trillion

“Here’s the bottom line: Americans will not tolerate insurance going away and will not tolerate taxes going up… So we have a choice to make: We can work together to lower costs without lowering standards. Or follow the 2020 Democrats pushing their $34 trillion one-size-fits-all plan.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke on the Senate floor about how the Democrats’ one-size-fits-all health care scheme will cost $34 trillion and will take work-earned health insurance away from 180 million Americans.  

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“I come to the floor today, to discuss last Tuesday’s 2020 Democrat presidential debate and specifically to discuss the topic of health care.

“Despite all the political posturing, here’s the key takeaways:

“Number one – the Democrats still want to take work-earned health insurance away from 180 million Americans.

“And number two – the Democrats want to raise taxes on the middle class, and on all Americans, to pay for it.

“Under the Democrats’ plan, people will lose forever the health coverage that they earned at work. 

“That means union workers, their hard-fought health benefits, they’ll disappear.

“That means that Nevada food service workers, Michigan autoworkers, all would lose their earned health care.

“Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want to replace work-based insurance with a one-size-fits-all government-run scheme.

“At the same time, the 2020 Democrats want to give free, taxpayer-funded health insurance to illegal immigrants.

“That’s the Democrats’ so-called Medicare for All plan.

“Really, it’s one-size-fits-all government-controlled health care and it is extremely expensive.

“Even more expensive than I’ve mentioned before on the floor because a new study that’s come out by something called the Urban Institute, a liberal group, they’ve just reported the cost of Medicare for All would be $34 trillion. That’s $34 trillion with a ‘T.’  

“So let’s put that into perspective. How much money is that? Well, over the next ten years, that’s more money than we’ll be spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security combined. It’s an astronomically large number.

“The Washington Post recently did a story, and this was the headline: ‘Will Medicare-for-all hurt the middle class?’ Their sub headline is: ‘Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders struggle with questions about its impact.’

“The story notes that Senators Warren and Sanders are ‘scrambling to ease concerns’ over middle-class costs.

“Working families back home in Wyoming, and I talked with many this weekend at our University of Wyoming’s homecoming football game, people from all over the state, they are not fooled by what is being offered by the Democrats in their debate.

“They know that they will have to pay dearly if the Democrats’ scheme is adopted and ever signed into law. 

“The Washington Post story, they quote and cite Ken Thorpe, who is Emory University’s health policy chair. This is what he says:

“The plan is by design incredibly disruptive. You create enormous winners and losers.’

“He adds, ‘There’s no question it hits the middle class.’

“For the middle class, it’s a double punch in the gut, and here’s why. Not only will the middle-class lose their insurance, but their taxes will go up as well.

“Still, Senator Warren, she will not answer the middle-class tax increase question, wont’ talk about it. She dodged the question again, and again, and again.

“Now, as the Post reports, the senator says she’ll release a plan to pay for her proposal – ‘in the next few weeks.’

“At the same time, she continues to duck the tax question.

“Last Tuesday she repeatedly tap-danced around the issue on the debate stage.

“In fact, Senator Warren’s debate performance reminded me of the Artful Dodger in Dickens’ novel ‘Oliver Twist.’

“She said out-of-pocket health care costs will go down.

“Yet she failed to mention that much, much more will be taken out of middle-class pockets in huge tax hikes.

“The British publication The Economist, well they know a lot about socialized medicine. They’ve been living with the British health care system for many, many years.

“They point out that Elizabeth Warren repeatedly refused to say how she would pay for her plan. They said she ‘ducked the question six times.’

“During the debate, it was Senator Sanders who jumped in to set the record straight.

“Bernie Sanders said, ‘I do think it is appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up.’

“Now, he’s even promised to raise taxes on lower-income Americans.

“If you’re making more than $29,000,’ he says, ‘you will be paying more in taxes’ under the plan that is being promoted by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

“Then there’s the warning from University of Chicago economist Katherine Baicker:

“These are going to be big tax increases,’ she says. ‘The tax brackets may have to shift.’

“And last week’s Wall Street Journal editorial, was headlined ‘Warren’s Middle-Class Tax Dodge,’ it explained the whole thing.

“The only way to pay for this [plan] is to raise taxes on the middle class, which is where the real money is.’

“So to sum up: While Senator Warren continues to dodge the tax issue, Senator Sanders admits Medicare for All will raise taxes on just about everyone.

“Under the Warren-Sanders plan, middle-class taxes rise, we’ll see taxes even rise for lower-income families. We’re talking about family income at $29,000.

“Here’s the bottom line: Americans will not tolerate insurance going away and will not tolerate taxes going up. They want to keep their health care plan, and they want to keep the lower costs.

“So we have a choice to make: We can work together to lower costs without lowering standards. Or follow the 2020 Democrats pushing their $34 trillion one-size-fits-all plan.

“Don’t let this Artful Dodger act fool you. Senator Warren and Senator Sanders support the same plan.

“They won’t lower health care costs. But they will raise everybody’s taxes. They won’t improve care. But they will take coverage away from 180 million Americans who now get it through work.

“As a doctor, I want to improve patient care. I want to make health care more affordable.

“Republicans are 100 percent committed to protecting patients with pre-existing conditions.

“We continue to work on bipartisan solutions, real reforms to lower the cost of everyone’s care.

“Meanwhile, the solution we heard last week on the debate state, the 2020 Democrats’ ‘solution’ is to force all of us to pay more, to wait longer, for worse care.

“That’s what they’ve seen in Canada, that’s what they’ve seen in England, and that’s what we’ll see in the United States if this one-size-fits-all plan were to be ever placed into effect.

“Let’s give patients what they want: the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at lower costs.”

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