SO DOES EVERY OTHER ADVOCATE OF IT: Elizabeth Warren misleads Americans on harm and costs of ‘Medicare-for-all.’

“Medicare-for-all” advocates claim that the focus on its cost to the federal government is disingenuous. We’re already spending well over $3 trillion a year on health care. The Warren/Sanders plan would relieve individuals and employers of that spending — and re-apportion it to the federal government.

Sanders and his allies like to cite a study from the libertarian Mercatus Center, which assumes that “Medicare-for-all” will adopt the existing Medicare program’s low payment rates — and thus save the country $2 trillion over a decade.

Of course, extending Medicare’s payment schedule across the entire health care system would reduce payments to doctors and hospitals by 40 percent, relative to private insurance. And it would raise demand for care by 11 percent.

In other words, “Medicare-for-all” posits that doctors and hospitals will have no qualms about treating more patients for less money.

It’s more likely that doctors and hospitals will respond to lower payment rates by reducing the supply of care they’re willing to deliver.

Quality will decline, too, as lower pay fails to attract the best talent.