For years, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has campaigned for what he calls “Medicare for All”—a proposal that would abolish private insurers and replace them with a “federally administered single-payer health care program” that would cover all forms of health care with “no more copays, no more deductibles,” and no premiums aside from substantially higher taxes. The irony of the proposal is that it looks nothing like the actual Medicare program that seniors use today. Indeed, the part of Medicare that is working best is Medicare Advantage, which deploys private insurers to provide high-quality, low-cost coverage to seniors. The best way to reform Medicare is to enact reforms that will further improve the quality and affordability of Medicare Advantage plans, and to learn from Medicare Advantage to improve the coverage that younger Americans can obtain.
