The Costs (Administrative & Otherwise) of Medicare for All

Last month the Washington Post's Fact Checker Glenn Kessler tackled a favorite talking point of “Medicare for All” (M4A) advocates: that M4A would save Americans money by replacing the high administrative costs of private health insurance with the low administrative costs of Medicare. Kessler's treatment was even-handed, but a fuller understanding of the issue requires more details than can be fit into a newspaper column. This piece attempts to fill some of the information gaps evident in the ongoing, surrounding debate. Spoiler alert: Medicare's administrative cost percentages are indeed low, but the total costs of M4A would nevertheless be quite high.