Sally C. Pipes - False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All

Praise for False Premise, False Promise

There is no better authority on Medicare for All than Sally Pipes, who lived under Canadas government-run health care system and knows firsthand its failings. She brings facts and clear-eyed reality to the debate to show why centralized control over health care is so wrong for America while explaining a better path forward.

GRACE-MARIE TURNER, president, Galen Institute

As a former CEO of a successful company, I know how important competition is to ensuring a thriving and innovative industry. If government takes over our health care systemas Sally Pipes knows all too wellAmericans can expect long waits, poor care, and higher taxes. This book presents not only the facts but also the human suffering of Canadians and others living under government-controlled health care. A must-read for those who want to stop single-payer health care from coming to America.

ANDY PUZDER, former CEO of CKE Restaurants

In her brilliant False Premise, False Promise, Sally Pipes dissects Medicare for All, laying bare the defects of all the single-payer proposals hatched by the Leftincluding the horror of urgently needed but fatally delayed treatment as suffered by her mother in the Canadian systemand makes the compelling case for market-based health care as Americas vitally required prescription.

PETE WILSON, governor of California

People say health care is complicatednot really. Its government that has made it so. And no one can sort through the morass of health care policy and present the issues with such stark clarity as Sally Pipes. In False Premise, False Promise, she exposes the financial and the human costs of a government-run health care system. Death and taxes may be certain, but not Medicare for All, thanks to this new book.

DR. ARTHUR B. LAFFER, founder and chairman of Laffer Associates

A highly readable, thoroughgoing, and devastating indictment of Medicare for All. Pipes makes the convincing case that such a single-payer scheme in America would have horrific consequences for the health of just about everyone. It would also kill innovation.

STEVE FORBES, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media

FALSE PREMISE FALSE PROMISE

FALSE PREMISE FALSE PROMISE

The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All

SALLY C. PIPES

New York London

2020 by Pacific Research Institute

Foreword 2020 by Tom Coburn

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Encounter Books, 900 Broadway, Suite 601, New York, New York 10003.

First American edition published in 2020 by Encounter Books, an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation.

Encounter Books website address: www.encounterbooks.com

Manufactured in the United States and printed on acid-free paper. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE

ISBN: 978-1-64177-072-9

EBOOK: 978-1-64177-073-6

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

American health care is at a crossroads.

The Affordable Care Act has failed to deliver on its promises. Five years after President Obamas signature legislative achievement went into full effect, individual market premiums have risen 75 percent.

Americans know the system is broken, and theyre demanding change. Lawmakers know they cant sit idly bythey have to act.

Some progressives hope to use this public discontent to usher in something that wouldve been unthinkable less than a decade agoa complete government takeover of the health care system.

Medicare for All seems simple enough on its faceenroll every American in Medicare, and have the federal government pick up the tab.

Unsurprisingly, many Americans are drawn to this plan. To hear Medicare for Alls advocates tell it, its easy to give every American high-quality careweve just historically lacked the political will.

Of course, theres a lot these Medicare for All cheerleaders wont tell you.

They wont tell you that the existing Medicare program can barely stay afloat. It spent more than $50 billion on fraudulent payments

They wont tell you how they plan to cover the multi-trillion-dollar cost of giving every man, woman, and child free government-run health insurance.

And they wont tell you how government-run health systems have failed to provide quality care to patientswhether abroad in the United Kingdom and Canada or here at home in the Veterans Health Administration.

In False Premise, False Promise, Sally Pipes will tell you all of this and more.

This important book exposes the lies that supporters of Medicare for All love to tell. Their plan wont make Americans healthier, nor is it free. Medicare for All wont reduce government spending, nor will it make our health care system more efficient.

This book also shows in startling detail what socialized medicine is like around the world: the long waits, shoddy care, and poor outcomes that patients living under government-run health systems must endure. And unlike Medicare for Alls most strident supporters, Sally grounds her case against single-payer plans in facts and reason.

She doesnt just expose the false promise of Medicare for All. Sally refutes the great lie of socialismthe promise that a benevolent government can give people everything they want at no cost. This is the call of declining nations around the world, the tool of tyrants who use promises of equality to obstruct individual freedom.

But this book is more than a refutation of socialized medicine. It also charts a path forward. Sally shows how market forces can bring transparency, efficiency, and quality to health care, just as they do in every other sector of the economy. The key is less government interventionnot more.

This book is an excellent resource for any American whos concerned about their health, their familys health, and the health of our great nation. Whether youre a staunch supporter of Medicare for All, a fervent opponent, or on the fence, theres something for you in these pages.

TOM COBURN, MD,
U.S. Senator, Oklahoma (Retired)

INTRODUCTION

MEDICARE FOR ALL MANIA SWEEPS THE POLITICAL LEFT

T he year is 2016. Senator Bernie Sanders has just lost the Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton. He ran a fierce campaign, garnering more than 13 million votes43 percent of the total cast.

Sanderss long-term political legacy wont be his second-place finish in 2016. It will be his introduction of Medicare for All to the masses. It is time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege, Sanders said upon releasing his vision for socialized medicine in the United States.