By Josiah Hale
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sell “healthcare for all” as a right with no deductible. The Democratic Socialists of America put it in writing: one federal program, free at the point of service, dental and drugs included, coverage for every resident — citizens and non-citizens. That is not a tweak to Blue Cross. It is a ban on private insurance for anything the government claims to cover, paid by taxes the DSA will not print on the flyer.
Sanders cites a CBO path that cuts national spending by hundreds of billions if you count private premiums as vanished. Independent budget shops counting the federal check write a different number: on the order of thirty to forty-seven trillion over a decade once employer plans and Medicaid are swallowed, even after his “pay-fors.” A dollar that leaves your paycheck is still a dollar. Calling it free does not make a surgeon appear.
The danger is not a pamphlet. It is the queue. Canada’s median wait from family doctor to specialist has run near half a year. Britain’s lists have held millions. When price is zero and supply is a budget vote, the system rations by calendar. Sanders’ bill goes further than those countries: no private escape hatch for the same covered care. The rich will fly. The rest will wait. That is not compassion. That is a monopoly with a waiting room.
DSA Democrats talk insurance executives. They do not talk MRI weeks, ER hallway beds, or a federal clerk deciding which knee is urgent. A country that already cannot staff rural hospitals will not staff a nationwide takeover by slogan. If the product were so cheap and so fast, Ottawa and London would not export patients. Read the bill. Then read the waiting list.
References
- https://medicareforall.dsausa.org/about
- https://www.americanactionforum.org/press-release/medicare-for-all-an-updated-coverage-and-budget-analysis/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2026/01/26/the-medicare-for-all-delusion/
— Josiah Hale, WAA1776
