Warren’s $52T 'Medicare-for-all' plan revealed: Campaign still claims no middle-class tax hikes needed
Like Medicare-for-all’s chief Senate champion, fellow candidate Bernie Sanders, the Warren campaign argues that many of these costs already are being spent in the existing health care system by governments, employers and individuals in the form of premiums, deductibles and other expenses.
The Warren campaign claims those individual costs would drop to “practically zero,” while the plan maintains and boosts a funding pipeline from other sources. However, unlike Sanders’ plan, Warren’s projects no burden for the middle class and a price tag of "just under $52 trillion" over the next 10 years, or slightly less than cost projections for the current system. Sanders’ plan has been estimated to cost roughly $32 trillion, though that price tag reflects additional spending while Warren's seems to factor in current spending as well.
So how would she pay for it?
Among other proposals, Warren calls for bringing in nearly $9 trillion in new Medicare taxes on employers over the next 10 years, arguing this would essentially replace what they’re already paying for employee health insurance. Further, Warren’s campaign says if they are at risk of falling short of the revenue target, they could impose a “Supplemental Employer Medicare Contribution” for big companies with “extremely high executive compensation and stock buyback rates.”
Whether some of those costs, however, still could be passed on to middle-class employees -- as economists argue payroll tax costs often are -- remains to be seen.
As the Tax Policy Center has noted, it is assumed the "employee bears the burden of both the employer and employee portions of payroll taxes."
Warren also proposes even more taxes on the ultra-rich, expanding on her previously announced signature wealth tax, to tax more of anyone’s net worth over $1 billion (estimated to raise another $1 trillion). Warren also calls for raising capital gains tax rates for the wealthy, taxing more foreign earnings and imposing a tax on financial transactions to generate $800 billion in revenue.
Aside from those and other taxes, the campaign claims they can scrounge up $2.3 trillion with better tax enforcement and policies, as well as additional funds by reining in defense spending.
well if Warren an ' increase revenue' why not propose a bill to tighten up the tax enforcement now ...