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How can we afford Medicare for all?

I wish someone would explain to me how we can possibly afford to have free Medicare for all including noncitizens.

Currently our Medicare program covers 44 million beneficiaries at a cost of $582 billion. This is funded by payroll taxes of 6.2% and employer matched by another 6.2% for a total of 12.4% from every paycheck. In addition, beneficiaries pay a premium of $112/month or more.

Yet, despite these taxes and premiums, Medicare as it stands now is projected to be insolvent by 2026. So, if the current system is going broke covering only 15% of our population, how in the world are we going to be able to provide free Medicare for six times as many people and, at the same time, also increase benefits? The mathematics of how this is possible totally escapes me.

Yet every Democrat running for president has stated that they are proponents of this. Could somebody please provide an explanation of how this is going to be funded? John R. Noll

Naperville

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