Fact Check: Susan Sarandon Spreads Fake News About Medicare for All

Actress and leftist activist Susan Sarandon claimed Wednesday that Medicare for All will eliminate networks, premiums, and deductibles; however, she neglected to mention that Medicare for All will lead to worse care for patients, longer waiting lines, and much higher taxes for working Americans.

Sarandon claimed, despite being a doctor or a policy expert, that Medicare will only lead to positive outcomes such as no health insurance premiums, deductibles, and surprise medical bills.

Sarandon’s utopian claims a simply not true. Medicare for All will replace networks, premiums, deductibles, and copays with:

1. Higher taxes. Even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) admitted during the first 2020 Democrat presidential debate that Medicare for All would increase taxes on middle-class families.
2. Longer lines.
3. Worse care for patients.
4. Trillions in new spending. One scholar found that Medicare for All would cost up to $60 trillion over the next ten years, up to $38.8 trillion of which would amount to net new federal spending.
5. Deep cuts in hospital revenues and physician incomes.
6. A slew of new government bureaucracies.
7. Significant hurdles arising from eliminating current health coverage and moving toward a single-payer system.
8. Scrapping consumer choice and competition for healthcare providers — Americans’ only option would be Medicare for All.
9. Eliminating one million private health insurance workers. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a sponsor of a House Medicare for All bill, admitted that one million health insurance workers will get “displaced” under Medicare for All.

Further, Americans’ approval of Medicare for All drops dramatically if it were to raise taxes or lead to a decline in care.

A majority of Americans would oppose a Medicare for All proposal if it were to:

• Eliminate private health insurance (58 percent)
• Require most Americans to pay more in taxes (60 percent)
• Harm Medicare (60 percent)
• Lead to delays in medical tests and treatments (70 percent)

“In fact, most people oppose Sanders’ idea of a government-controlled health care system once they realize what’s behind the Democrat Socialists’ gilded plan: higher taxes, longer wait times, and worse care,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in June.