When Fox & Friends, Trump’s favorite right-wing propaganda machine launched a Twitter poll asking whether the benefits of Medicare for All “outweigh the costs,” they got a bit of a surprise. The poll said, “Bernie Sanders’ ‘Medicare for all’ bill estimated to cost $32 trillion, new study says. Would benefits outweigh the costs?”
Bernie Sanders' 'Medicare for all' bill estimated to cost $32.6 trillion, new study says. Would the benefits outweigh the costs?
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) July 31, 2018
And 73 percent of the nearly 32,000 respondents answered “yes”.
Fox & Friends were likely anticipating an overwhelmingly negative response to their poll, which was framed to expose the cost of $32.6 trillion for Bernie Sanders’ ‘Medicare for All’ bill, a price tag estimated according to a recent Koch Brothers-funded study. They mentioned the overall price of the program but conveniently did not note that the study also found that the universal healthcare program would save $2 trillion over ten years.
They also failed to clarify that although the study found that the plan would raise overall federal spending, the “overall health care spending in the United States over the same period” would be slightly reduced. In fact, Vox points out that, “many or even most Americans could end up saving money on their premiums or on out-of-pocket costs.”
Despite the spin Fox & Friends tried to give to this story, viewers had enough common sense to see that under Sanders’ plan, the country would spend roughly the same amount on health care overall, but would also enjoy universal health care coverage.
Let’s see Fox & Friends cover that.
You can follow me on Twitter @Mayme Barth
