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Article snippet: In his big new single-payer health care bill, Senator Bernie Sanders says he wants to turn the country’s health system into “Medicare for all.” But his bill actually outlines a system very different from the current Medicare program. The Sanders plan envisions changing Medicare in two important ways. First, it would make it more generous than it has ever been, expanding it to cover new types of benefits and to erase most direct health care costs for consumers. Those changes would tend to make it more expensive. But it also would put the Medicare program on the sort of diet it has never attempted. Those changes, still in sketch form in the legislation, are in many ways the heart of its long-term overhaul plan. The changes are intended to make the health care system more affordable, but the details could have big effects on what sorts of care might be developed and made available. Medicare, the 52-year-old health insurance program for older people and the disabled, is enormously popular. Structured as an essentially open-ended entitlement, Medicare establishes a menu of covered medical treatments at certain prices, and then pays doctors and hospitals whenever a beneficiary uses them. The total amount that Medicare spends increases depending on how many people enroll, and how many medical services they use. So far, there is no real cap on how much money Medicare can spend. The Sanders plan — which has no near-term chance of advancing with Republicans in power — woul... Link to the full article to read more