Decades ago, the wealthy owner of the Washington Redskins lamented the free-spending ways of his head coach, George Allen: “I gave George an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it.” Other owners knew there were ways to beat Allen, but outspending him was not one of them.
That’s one puzzle with Clinton’s proposal to let people of “a certain age”—say, “55 or 50 and up”—buy Medicare coverage instead of private insurance. This idea is not likely to win over anyone leaning toward Sanders, because he will always offer more.
His “Medicare for all” blueprint is extravagantly generous: It would cover everyone, not just those close to the current retirement age, and it would provide far more than what Medicare now offers.
You can do that when you assume that torrents of money will fall out of the sky to cover the expense. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget says that even with the gigantic tax increases Sanders would impose, his health care scheme would add at least $2.6 trillion to the federal debt over a decade. In a less rosy scenario, it could pile on $13.7 trillion—roughly as much as the entire current publicly held federal debt.
Read more: The Fatal Flaw in Hillary Clinton’s Medicare Plan – Reason.com