A Single-Payer System Like ‘Medicare For All’ Would Save Billions In Billing And Administrative Costs, Study Finds

It would also save about 68,000 American lives a year. The research gives some weight to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) talking points on the 2020 campaign trail, but the study is also built on assumptions about human behavior and how the system would work in practice that others find fault with. Meanwhile, some say that the Democrats' push for "Medicare for All" could hurt them in Minnesota, a traditionally blue state that has a number of medical-related jobs at stake.

The Washington Post: Here's The Medicare-For-All Study Bernie Sanders Keeps Bringing Up

A new analysis published in the journal Lancet adds some empirical heft to an argument many progressives have been making for years: A national single-payer health-care system would save tens of thousands of lives each year — and hundreds of billions of dollars. If you watched last night’s Democratic debate in Nevada you might have heard Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cite “a major study [that] came out from Yale epidemiologist[s] in Lancet, one of the leading medical publications in the world” in support of his Medicare-for-all plan. He was talking about this study, which was just published last week. (Ingraham, 2/20)

Bloomberg: Medicare-For-All Could Give Trump An Edge In Minnesota

The government-run health plan endorsed by Sanders would so radically transform the health care system that it’s unlikely to be enacted swiftly should he became president, even if Democrats also controlled Congress. That may not matter in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state awash in health system work, including the highest percentage of insurance-related and medical device jobs in the country. (Newkirk, 2/21)

In other news from the campaign trail —

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Labor Pains Of ‘Medicare For All’

Labor unions are divided over whether to endorse a Democratic candidate for president in 2020 — and, if so, whom to choose. Some unions are firmly behind the “Medicare for All” plans being pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But the influential Culinary Workers Union in Nevada declined to endorse any candidate, with members worried about what might replace the generous benefits they won by bargaining away wage increases. (2/20)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: Shaheen Warns Of Potential Obamacare Repeal; Says Backup Plan Needed

The U.S. Supreme Court has a “greater than 50% likelihood” of overturning the Affordable Care Act in the next two years, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen warned recently, a reality she says should force candidates to focus on health care this election year. At a meeting of New Hampshire health care stakeholders at the New Hampshire Medical Society in Concord last week, Shaheen said that a lawsuit against the law, often referred to as “Obamacare,” should land at the Supreme Court by 2021. (DeWitt, 2/20)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription