Public Option
Medicare Direct, A Blueprint For Public Option Waivers, Part 1: Introduction, Administration, And Financing
There is a reason that Medicare for All has captured the enthusiastic support of a large majority of the public: The status quo for our health care system is unsustainable economically and unforgiveable morally. An honest assessment of the probability of Congress enacting Medicare for All–related legislation, however, demonstrates it is highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. ...
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Medicare Direct, A Blueprint For Public Option Waivers, Part 2: Benefit Design, Provider Networks, And Reimbursement
In all of the discussion and debate regarding Medicare for All and public option proposals, three essential considerations often get short shrift: the benefits enrollees will receive, the network of providers they will have access to; and the rates providers will be paid for delivering these services. These elements, however, really are the guts of any meaningful initiative of this scope. ...
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Medicare Direct, A Blueprint For Public Option Waivers, Part 3: Waiver Design, Legal Authority, And Conclusion
Perhaps the greatest weakness of the Medicare for All, Medicare for More, and public option proposals issued thus far is the fact that they require Congress to pass new legislation. That is certainly true for Medicare for All, it’s true for a Medicare buy-in, and it’s likely true for federally run public options. The biggest strength of Medicare Direct, by contrast, is that it requires no such action. ...
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Public Option 1.0: Washington State Takes An Important Step Forward
On Sunday, the Washington State legislature passed a bill to create standardized health plans in the state’s Exchange and establish new public option-ish plans that contract directly with its Health Care Authority, which operates the state’s Medicaid program. The hallmark of these new plans, and the foundation of their claim to the title “public,” is they are required cap provider reimbursements at Medicare-based levels....
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Medicare For All Can Begin In 2021: Here’s How
While Democratic presidential candidates and the newspaper headlines hash out the ideological nuances of a Medicare-based single payer coverage scheme, work is underway to consider how coverage can be expanded to those in need within a realistic timeframe at minimal cost or disruption to the existing system....
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Creating Medicare Advantage Premium Support For All, Part 5: Which Proposal Is Actually Medicare?
With the burgeoning debate around single payer, primarily oriented around "Medicare for All," CEO Billy Wynne takes a look under the hood of Sen. Bernie Sanders' "M4All" proposal and discovers it is not actually based on Medicare. He also continues his inquiry into what bona fide Medicare for All would actually look like, in this case by explaining the basics of the Medicare Advantage program, which covers 33% of Medicare enrollees this year....
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Creating Medicare Advantage Premium Support For All, Part 4: Financing
In this fourth installment of his Medicare Advantage Premium Support for All series, CEO Billy Wynne demonstrate that this universal coverage approach can be fully funded with current spending (i.e., no new taxes would be necessary). ...
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Creating Medicare Advantage Premium Support For All, Part 3: Provider Considerations
"In the first post of this series, I hypothesized that a Medicare-for-all approach that puts market-based principles at its core will have the most success not only in winning sturdy, bipartisan support but in actualizing high-quality universal coverage at lower cost. In Part 2, I explored modest benefit enhancements that would be needed to maintain the quality of coverage various populations have under existing programs, some of which were reiterated in the CAP proposal.
"In this post, I will examine what a Medicare Advantage (MA)-based universal coverage regime would mean for providers, who will continue to be the heart of our system and whose decisions affect the cost and quality of our care more than anyone else’s."...
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Creating Medicare Advantage Premium Support for All, Part 2: Benefit Design
This is the second installment in my series examining the potential for a bipartisan Medicare-for-all approach that leverages competition among private payers and consumer choice via an advanceable tax credit....
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The Bipartisan ‘Single Payer’ Solution: Medicare Advantage Premium Support For All
In my last Health Affairs Blog post, I outlined a potentially bipartisan four-step plan to move past the American Health Care Act’s (AHCA’s) disastrous framework toward a more stable, less expensive health care system. For those seeking incremental, near-term solutions, I hope those recommendations provide helpful guidance. But the AHCA’s reckless drive through the US House of Representatives has taught us something about the current status of health care politics and may have opened the window to more significant, ultimately more successful, reforms....
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