Dive Brief:
- A Fiscal FactCheck report released this week finds presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposed offsets for a single-payer healthcare program would cover only about three-quarters of his estimated cost, which would result in a $3 trillion shortfall over 10 years.
- It adds the plan would also raise the top tax rate beyond the point at which some economists think it would continue generating revenue because it could discourage the pursuit of high earning and slow economic growth.
- The report notes another new analysis by Emory University health economist Kenneth Thorpe estimates an even higher price for the program, leaving it $14 trillion short.
Dive Insight:
The analyses ultimately conclude Sanders' single-payer plan is implausible. Meanwhile, Sanders' campaign had disputed Thorpe’s report and called it a “complete hatchet job."
These analyses differ from that produced by economist Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for Sanders' campaign because they each make different assumptions, the Huffington Post notes.
The Fiscal Factcheck report argues Friedman underestimated the cost and overstated the revenue that would be raised by Sanders' plan. "We look forward to hearing more details about the healthcare side of the plan and hope that he will adjust his policies so that the plan doesn’t add to the deficit," it concludes.