Policy Experts Destroy Kenneth Thorpe's Analysis of Senator Sanders' Single-Payer Reform Plan
David Himmelstein, Professor of Public Health at CUNY and Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Steffie Woolhandler,
Professor in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College; Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
destroy the "analysis" of Kenneth Thorpe that's been receiving so much media attention - as well as the many threads here on DU.
The details are all in the link - but the assumptions they dispute are:
1. He incorrectly assumes administrative savings of only 4.7 percent of expenditures, based on projections of administrative savings under Vermont's proposed reform.
2. Thorpe assumes huge increases in the utilization of care, increases far beyond those that were seen when national health insurance was implemented in Canada, and much larger than is possible given the supply of doctors and hospital beds.
3. Thorpe assumes that the program would be a huge bonanza for state governments, projecting that the federal government would relieve them of 10 percent of their current spending for Medicaid and CHIP -- equivalent to about $20 billion annually.
4. Thorpe's analysis also ignores the large savings that would accrue to state and local governments -- and hence taxpayers -- because they would be relieved of the costs of private coverage for public employees.
5. Thorpe's analysis also apparently ignores the huge tax subsidies that currently support private insurance, which are listed as "Tax Expenditures" in the federal government's official budget documents.
6. Thorpe assumes zero cost savings under single-payer on prescription drugs and devices.
Highly recommend reading the details. I've posted the bias I find in Kenneth Thorpe's history and connections in many threads so won't repeat but if interested, here's a link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1086606
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-himmelstein/kenneth-thorpe-bernie-sanders-single-payer_b_9113192.html?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living&ir=Healthy+Living
