While promoting her "Medicare for All" proposal, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has claimed that out-of-pocket spending will reach $11 trillion in the next decade under the nation's current healthcare system, according to a PolitiFact and Kaiser Health News report.
"If we make no other changes in the next 10 years, Americans will reach into their pockets and pay out about $11 trillion on insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses," the presidential hopeful said in an Instagram video posted Nov. 11.
Ms. Warren's campaign said the estimate is based on a report from the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal think tank, and federal estimates of household out-of-pocket expenses and premium costs over the next 10 years, according to KHN and PolitiFact.
Economist Linda Blumberg, one of the authors of the Urban Institute report, backed Ms. Warren's estimate during an examination of the senator's math. Ms. Blumberg said in the KHN and PolitiFact report that the $11 trillion is "perfectly consistent" with the analysis, and if anything, is a low estimate.
Ms. Warren released her Medicare for All funding plan Nov. 1 and has said Medicare for All would give $11 trillion back to Americans by eliminating premiums and virtually eliminating out-of-pocket costs.
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