In most ways, yesterday's Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on single payer health care looks scrupulously neutral. It takes no position on the merits of single payer, which is often popularly referred to as Medicare for All. It does not estimate the costs or budgetary effects of the single payer plans proposed by liberal lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash.).
Instead, the CBO report acts as an introduction to the many questions that would need to be resolved in order for such a system to be put in place. It highlights the obstacles standing between where we are now and a single payer system, and the potential consequences—to both individual patients and taxpayers writ large—of the various tradeoffs required to get there.
