In the midst of a contentious back-and-forth, Sanders eventually delivered the following whopper: “What every study out there, conservative or progressive, says: Medicare for All will save money. ”

That statement is not remotely true.

The liberal Urban Institute found that, while the United States would spend $52 trillion under the status quo (when all government and private spending is taken into account) under his healthcare plan, we’d spend $59 trillion. The issue is that, even if having a single government payer would mean consolidating expenses, Sanders has promised that his plan would offer full medical, dental, prescription drug, and vision coverage without charging any premiums, copayments, or deductibles. After weighing these offsetting effects, the study concluded, “The increase in spending for people with this new generous coverage would outweigh the savings from lower prices for healthcare providers and lower administrative costs.”