Small details make a big difference: Medicare For All Calculator

Katelyn Lemay
Nov 1 · 1 min read

While using Team Warren’s Medicare For All Calculator I was surprised and delighted by the ability to populate this prompt with a pre-calculated value:

Screenshot of the Medicare for All Calculator on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign website. The user is asked to estimate how much they spend on health care every year, but there are options to populate the text box with the average spend for US families or single adults.

Clicking a link lets you use the average cost for a family of four or for a single adult— and of course, she cites her sources for these figures.

This is a welcome improvement over the student loan debt forgiveness calculator she provided a few months back:

Screenshot of the student loan debt forgiveness calculator for Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign website. The user is asked how much outstanding student loan debt they have, with no option to populate the text box with a pre-calculated number.

Obviously these tools are more compelling and effective if you use your personal info, but there are a variety of reasons why one might not want to do so (including curiosity!).