Government-sponsored health programs like Medicare and Medicaid reimburse health care providers at a rate below the cost of care. In a Medicare for All system, providers such as hospitals and doctors face the threat of being paid below cost for virtually all health care services.

How many providers would survive long-term under that plan? If some practices and providers were to close as a result, patients, especially in rural areas, would have fewer places to go to access essential health services.

These are frightening thoughts on the horizon about our possible future health care.

And we haven’t even discussed the cost of this proposed monstrosity, which is estimated to range anywhere from $1.38 trillion to $3 trillion in new government health care spending each year. We’re already running a $1 trillion deficit with $22 trillion in debt.

How are we going to pay for Medicare for All? Under the plan from Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate and a U.S. senator from Vermont, new taxes on businesses and individual income are the proposed solution. So, taxpayers could potentially see more money taken from their pockets and get less health care access in return.