Fact check: Savings from Bernie Sanders' Medicare plan dubious

THE FACTS: Savings from Medicare for All are not a slam dunk.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report earlier this year that total spending under a single-payer system, such as the one proposed by the Vermont independent, “might be higher or lower than under the current system depending on the key features of the new system.”

Those features involve nitty gritty details about payment rates for hospitals and doctors, which are not fully spelled out by Sanders, as well as the estimated cost of generous benefits that include long-term care services and no copays and deductibles for comprehensive medical care.

Sanders’ figure of $5 trillion over 10 years in health cost savings comes from a study by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The lead author has been a political supporter of Sanders’ and the study was unveiled at an event hosted by a think tank founded by the senator’s wife.