Implementing a Medicare for All system would have broad effects on the American economy, though understanding the precise impact is difficult, according to experts.
In a February 3, 2020 New York Times column, Austin Frakt, senior research scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Managementat Harvard T.H. School of Public Health, explored recent debates around whether individual wages could rise under a Medicare for All system because employers would presumably be spending less on health benefits as costs shift to the government.
“Ultimately, someone would have to pay for Medicare for all, so not everyone would be better off,” Frakt concluded. “But to the extent the cost of health insurance is shifted away from employers and to the federal government under Medicare for all, it seems wages would rise, at least for some people.”
Read the New York Times article: Would Your Wages Rise Under ‘Medicare for All’?