The midterm elections are less than a month away and could well decide not only the future course of America but the very existence of our nation as we know it.

One of the main issues raised by Democrats is healthcare. Many of their campaign ads have featured and targeted older Americans because they are more vulnerable and reliant on healthcare.

A growing number of Democrats, especially those with strong socialist tendencies, are pushing for Medicare for all, also referred by some as FREE Medicare for all. They claim that every American has the right to have free healthcare and often point to other countries like Canada and Great Britain.

Free Medicaid for all sounds great and who wouldn’t want to have free healthcare, especially with the high cost of medical treatment for everything these days.

What Democrats, like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others who push for free Medicare for all fail to tell everyone that their so-called free care is not free at all. Fox News explained:

“The ‘Medicare for All’ plan pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and endorsed by a host of Democratic congressional and presidential hopefuls would increase government health care spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a new study.”

“The Vermont senator has avoided conducting his own cost analysis, and those supporting the plan have at times struggled to explain how they could pay for it.”

The only way to pay for the FREE Medicare would be to double or triple (perhaps more) federal income taxes and taxes on many other things we use in our daily lives. Divide $32 trillion by 10 years and that means a cost of at least $3.2 trillion a year.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the estimated budget for 2018 is expenditures of $4.1 trillion with revenue of about $3.3 trillion, leaving a deficit of $793 billion. Now add the $3.2 trillion cost for FREE Medicare to that budget. You don’t have to be a math genius to realize the economic cost their FREE Medicare will have on our nation and the people.

As for the free healthcare in countries like Canada and Great Britain, I have friends in both countries and they have all told me about the growing problems they are facing. In both countries, their taxes have been raised and yet the healthcare system is still having financial problems. The solution has been to steadily cut what services and medications the national healthcare system covers. In other words, their taxes have gone up and their coverage has gone down (sounds a lot like what’s happened with Obamacare, doesn’t it?)

I’ve seen campaign commercials by Democrats talking about the need to keep coverage for pre-existing health conditions. Yes, Obamacare does guarantee coverage for pre-existing conditions, but it does not guarantee that coverage is affordable.

My wife takes a medication to help regulate an irregular heartbeat. I have type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, both of which are controlled with medication and diet and I am overweight. When Obamacare first came out, the cheapest policy we could find would cost us $816 a month, with a $4,000 deductible and then it would only pay 80% of ‘covered’ services.

Currently, the same policy would cost us over $1,000 a month. That means that we would have to pay a minimum of $16,000 out of pocket before the policy would kick in and then continue to pay 20% or more for additional medical needs.

Yes, we have the guaranteed right to get coverage for our pre-existing conditions, but there is no way we can afford the cost and I don’t know many others who can.

My older friends, when you go to the polls in November, please keep in mind the truth behind what many Democrats are offering. Remember that NOTHING is free and that similar programs tried in other nations are failing big time. Many of you are on fixed incomes, so ask yourselves if you can afford the doubling and tripling of your taxes, let alone increased taxes on many other products and services you use.

If Democrats regain control of the government, it will have a direct negative economic impact on many older Americans.