More than 24 million people require hospitalization annually in the United States, and many more see their doctors or other providers, or have tests and procedures, in these institutions. Yet as the health care reform debate heats up, some have painted a grim picture of how hospitals would fare under Medicare for All — predicting slashed budgets, shuttered wards, service cuts, and mass layoffs. Especially for those who rely on hospital care, such claims may sound an alarm.

A recent commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicted that Medicare for All would put hospitals deep in the red, forcing them to shed up to 1.5 million jobs. An article in the New York Times last month gave voice to similar concerns that hospitals, especially vulnerable ones, would close “virtually overnight” under Medicare for All, or would abandon “lower-paying services like mental health” altogether.

An editorial from the Washington Post warned that single payer could “shutter smaller or regional facilities whose margins are already low.” Even some progressives have given credence to such claims, predicting — or even calling for — deep reductions in “prices,” i.e., insurance payments to hospitals, under Medicare for All, or under other reforms.