One of the biggest obstacles for “Medicare for All” is the enormous gap between payments to hospitals by the government and private insurance companies. For instance, Medicare will pay a hospital $17,000 for knee replacement surgery, while private insurance companies will pay about $37,000. However, if there were to be a price ceiling under Medicare for All, hospitals could lose almost $151 billion in annual revenue. Healthcare professionals would have to be laid off, and lower-paying services such as mental health would be abandoned.