Medicare for All guarantees free and equal healthcare insurance for all Americans. America is the only developed country without universal healthcare insurance. Over 40% of privately insured patients face surprise medical bills, acting as the primary cause of two-thirds of personal bankruptcies in America (USA Today). Tens of millions of Americans struggle with medical debts and avoid needed care for fear of the cost (Federal Reserve). Medicare for All would allow all Americans to gain access to healthcare while boosting economic prosperity.

Guaranteed healthcare would eliminate the struggle many Americans face from choosing between life or crippling debt. Additionally, according to UC Berkeley, accessibility and choice of prescription medicine will increase under Medicare for All since out-of-pocket payments and out-of-network healthcare professionals will no longer exist. According to a social studies teacher at an American high school, “if wasteful spending can be eliminated, it would certainly bode well for people employed by hospitals and clinics. Our healthcare system reflects our historic racial and class inequities at every turn. If we continue to treat healthcare as a privilege, instead of a human right, then we are accepting the reality that over 30 million people’s lives are treated as expendable in this nation. The poorer communities of color live in the areas that are in both ‘health care deserts’ and ‘food deserts.’ The current COVID-19 pandemic has exposed health care inequities for all to see, and will hopefully lead to a renewed push to make serious institutional changes, such as ‘Medicare for All.’ The main problem will be how to disentangle the profit motive from the accomplishment of equal access to quality health care.” Clearly, the current dysfunctional system is not satisfactory for most Americans.

Medicare for All would perhaps most relevantly prevent future pandemics. Public Citizen reports that single-payer healthcare systems can roll out testing and contact trace more effectively through a single centralized system. Without coordinating thousands of private corporations, countries like Taiwan and South Korea reacted quickly to the pandemic and rapidly began widespread testing. If a Medicare for All system was implemented before COVID-19, perhaps the Americans who lost family members or friends from the coronavirus may still have their loved ones today. 

Healthcare spending is rising at an unprecedented rate - faster than the growth of the US economy - leading insurance premiums to rise over 90%, according to the Wharton School. Thus, families will have to pay double the amount for healthcare as they do now due to excessively high private insurance administrative costs (University of Massachusetts). The University of Massachusetts also reports that the total savings from Medicare for All would amount to $5.1 trillion, which could act as a safety net for future recessions. The University of Cambridge warns that by allowing healthcare costs to skyrocket, the healthcare stock bubble will pop since employers and citizens will push back on excessive healthcare costs. As a result, healthcare insurance companies will accumulate massive debt to make up for the decrease in revenue from consumers, and investors will rapidly sell healthcare stocks. The resulting impacts of the healthcare stock bubble pop could mirror that of the 2008 recession caused by the housing bubble pop, which led to a devastating recession that put up to 900 million people in poverty (Huffington Post). The popping of the private healthcare stock bubble and subsequent recession could put many Americans out of work, causing massive economic harm to the American nation.

Clearly, the universal coverage and economic benefits that Medicare for All would provide are critical for the health of American citizens and the US economy. Through lower drug prices, equal access, and a public health motive, hundreds of Americans will no longer be pushed into poverty, avoid medical care for fear of high costs, or lose family and friends in a possible future pandemic. The potential for economic prosperity and growth is undeniable.