The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is heating up, and health care is a key issue up for debate. A number of high-profile candidates, including Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard and Elizabeth Warren, have endorsed a Medicare for All solution to America’s health care problem. However, the idea is most closely associated with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has made it a central platform of his election bid.

The United States spends around twice as much on health care as other high-income nations, with inferior results. Worse still, around 45 million Americans, 13.7 percent of the population, have no health care whatsoever. The Medicare for All plan, which aims to create a nationalized health care system like those employed by virtually every other high-income nation, is highly popular among the general public. In late 2018, polls from Reuters and Harris found that at least 70 percent of Americans supported the proposal—including…