The cosmically huge 'if' of Medicare for All

Imagine a world in which the rosy assumptions Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) makes on behalf of his “Medicare for all” health-care plan turn out to be true. That is what Charles Blahous, a professor at George Mason University’s libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center, did in a paper released last month. He found that the government would expand massively — by a whopping $32.6 trillion over 10 years, gobbling up an additional 12.7 percent of gross domestic product by 2031.