RESUMO
Many problems facing the Affordable Care Act would disappear if the nation were instead implementing Medicare for All - the extension of Medicare to every age group. Every American would be automatically covered for life. Premiums would be replaced with a set of Medicare taxes. There would be no patient cost sharing. Individuals would have free choice of doctors. Medicare's single-payer bargaining power would slow price increases and reduce medical cost as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Taxes as a percentage of GDP would rise from below average to average for economically advanced nations. Medicare for All would be phased in by age.
Assuntos
Medicare/organização & administração , Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/organização & administração , Sistema de Fonte Pagadora Única/organização & administração , Humanos , Medicare/economia , Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/economia , Setor Privado , Setor Público , Sistema de Fonte Pagadora Única/economia , Impostos , Estados UnidosRESUMO
In 1991, an article appeared proposing a plan for "Responsible National Health Insurance" (RHI) that contained three crucial elements supported by economists affiliated with two conservative policy institutions (the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation). The central purpose of this article is to revisit RHI in light of developments over the past decade, and to make the case that liberals, rather than reject RHI, now should support it, provided conservatives agree to sufficient funding. In this article, I recommend "pouring liberal wine into this conservative bottle."