Wrong Way O'Rourke Wants Single-Payer for Texas

Press Release

"Extreme liberal Beto O'Rourke wants to bring a Canadian-style single payer healthcare system to Texas, which would lead to massive increases in taxes and large delays in care. Beto even supports Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All' plan, which would provide taxpayer-funded health coverage for illegal immigrants. When it comes to healthcare, Beto O'Rourke is out-of-touch with Texas." -- Mark Miner, Communications Director

O'Rourke: "We Need A Single Payer System." (Facebook.com, 6/13/17)

VIDEO: (0:45) O'ROURKE: "We need a single payer system." (LINK)
VIDEO: (0:49) O'ROURKE: "So what's my vision? Universal health care, and very likely that will involve some form of a single payer system." (0:58) (LINK)
VIDEO: (2:48) O'ROURKE: "The only way that I understand that you can get there is to have some kind of a single payer model, and the best one going in the United States of America is Medicare." (2:58) (LINK)
In 2017 O'Rourke Said He Supported Bernie Sanders' Medicare For All Plan. "June 15, 2017: Writes a Facebook post that says, "A single-payer Medicare-for-all program is the best way to ensure all Americans get the healthcare they need.' … October 9, 2017: Jeff Stein (then a reporter at Vox, now at the Washington Post) asks O'Rourke if he would support the Sanders bill should he win his Senate race in Texas. "The answer is yes, I would,' O'Rourke tells him." (Sarah Kliff, "It Is Wildly Unclear Whether Beto O'Rourke Supports Medicare-For-All," Vox, 3/15/19)

Sanders Medicare For All Plan Would Include Health Coverage For Illegal Immigrants. ""We have to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all, including the undocumented,' Sanders declared to cheers last month in Pasadena, at a presidential forum organized by immigrant rights groups. But senators who have supported Sanders' bill have rarely campaigned on how it would give people who are in the country illegally access to taxpayer-funded health care." (Alexander Tin, "Does Medicare For All Cover Undocumented Immigrants? Depends On Who You Ask," CBS News, 6/13/19)
In 2020 The CBO Found Single Payer Would Increase Taxes By Up To $3 Trillion A Year By 2030 To Cover New Spending And Would Lead To "Delays And Foregone Care" In The Health Care System. "CBO projects that federal subsidies for health care would be $1.5 trillion to $3.0 trillion higher in 2030 under the illustrative single-payer options than they would be in that year under current law. … The increase in demand for health care would exceed the increase in supply, resulting in more unmet demand compared with the amount under current law, CBO projects. (Those effects on overall access to care and unmet demand would occur simultaneously because people would use more care and would have used even more if it were supplied.) The increase in unmet demand would correspond to greater congestion in the health care system--including delays and forgone care--particularly under the illustrative options that include lower cost sharing and lower payment rates. Because the single-payer options that CBO examined would greatly increase federal subsidies for health care, the government would need to implement new financing mechanisms--such as raising existing taxes or introducing new ones, reducing certain spending, or issuing federal debt." (Phillip L. Swagel, "How CBO Analyzes Proposals For A Single-Payer Health Care System," U.S. Congressional Budget Office, 12/10/20)

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