Medicare for Nobody

Stephen Moore on Oct 13, 2026

Political pros will remember that a dozen or so years ago, the Democrats produced a famous (or infamous) TV ad showing a man wheeling an elderly lady in a wheelchair up a path to an overlook on a mountain. At the end of the ad, the man pushes the woman out of her chair and off the cliff.

The person pushing the wheelchair was a lookalike of Paul Ryan, the then-Republican speaker of the House. The idea of the ad was that congressional Republicans had a secret plan to take away Medicare from elderly Americans dependent on the program.

There was never any such doomsday plan, just a series of common-sense steps to control program costs.

But ironically enough, now there really is a plan to bankrupt Medicare and put millions of American senior citizens at risk of losing their health coverage.

It's called Medicare for All, and the idea of the scheme is to offer free health care for everyone in the country.

The bill to create Medicare for All has a multitrillion-dollar price tag. Medicare is already scheduled to run out of funds in about seven years; this Medicare for All plan ensures the program runs out of money in two to three years. Wonderful news.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is the lead sponsor of the Medicare for All bill, and he already has 18 cosponsors.

Meanwhile, most of the democratic socialists who have seemingly taken command of the Democratic Party in the last few months are almost all fully on board this train that is picking up momentum on the campaign trails.

Free health care! Who could be against that?

Well, seniors, for one. The folks on Medicare are dependent on the coverage,

And they paid dutifully for many years into the trust fund via the 3.8% payroll tax when they were working.

We would expect that Democrats would be sprinting away from Medicare for All at full speed. Instead, many are hopping on this train.

It is by far the most expensive feature of the democratic socialist policy agenda. The Trump White House puts the price tag at well over $50 trillion. In other words, Democrats are providing more health benefits and more free stuff to buy votes.

But the financial reality is no secret to seniors. They strongly oppose expanding their gold-plated coverage plan to people who are young or unemployed and haven't paid for any of the benefits.

I call the Democratic scheme the "throw grandma from the train" scenario.

The program will run out of money. Medicare coverage will be severely trimmed. The plan will eventually blow up.

You might even say that now Dem congressional leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries are the ones with plans to parade seniors up that hill only to toss them off.

What's further infuriating is, the Sanders Medicare for All scheme would make even illegal immigrants eligible for free health care. The law as written would apply to any "resident" of the U.S. -- which will only further encourage illegal entries.

Obviously, all these expansions will put Medicare into a financial freefall.

Medicare for All will morph into Medicare for Nobody. Seniors need to make it clear that the plan that Bernie envisions will lead to rationing of heath care along with worsening coverage and medical outcomes.

What a deal.

Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.