Is it the ACA’s lack of cost controls on premiums pushing Dems leftward? The realization that “the private market” is simply not working? Trump’s threatened cutbacks? What does this mean for the California governor’s race? And will “Medicare for Most” satisfy single-payer advocates?
Rick’s mailbag: ‘What bullsh**! My health care costs skyrocketed!’
By Rick Newman. Yahoo Finance.
. . . I reported recently that overall health care spending moderated between 2008 and 2013, largely because of the deep recession that impelled people to rein in spending on practically everything.
“What bullshit!” wrote a reader named Thomas, from California. “My health care costs SKYROCKETED during Obama years.” He went on to explain how his premiums surged by 20% a year after Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
Democrats march toward single-payer health care
By Peter Sullivan. The Hill.
Democrats acknowledge the embrace of single-payer is part of a broader leftward shift for their party. But they say the experience of trying to make private markets work in ObamaCare — a system that Republicans have opposed at every turn — has changed their perspective on the likelihood of achieving universal coverage.
“I think Bernie Sanders has definitely laid out a vision and created a movement toward Medicare for all, and no doubt that has been a big factor,” said Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy at CAP.
Part of the need for the next step, he said, is “it’s become clear we’re not going to get any cooperation from Republicans in terms of making the current system work optimally, and there’s a lot of frustration there.”
The Medicare Extra plan is a way to take the “final step” to universal coverage after ObamaCare, Spiro said, and “we’re beginning that debate now, which will continue for a few years on how best to finally reach that goal.”
California Today: Health Care Proves Divisive Among Democrats
By Adam Nagourney and Matt Stevens. New York Times.
One of the big issues for Democrats this year is health care. But the race to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown is showing what a divisive issue that is as Democrats chart the party’s future. It’s not just about Obamacare versus Trumpcare.
Four Democratic candidates for governor demonstrated that Thursday night before an audience of hundreds gathered in San Diego for a state party convention that will test how divided California Democrats are heading into critical midyear elections.
Talk of single-payer health care at the debate — sponsored by the San Diego Democratic Party — drew some of the biggest cheers of the night.
“It’s a fundamental issue in this campaign,” said Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor and a strong proponent of single-payer health care. “With respect to some of the others on this stage, I don’t sense that they are as committed to single-payer as they are saying.”
Medicare for (almost) all, brought to Earth
Medicare Extra wouldn’t be ‘Medicare for All’ but within a few years, it would be ‘Medicare for Most.’
By Andrew Sprung. healthinsurance.org
Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal, first introduced in the 2016 presidential campaign, got a lot of progressive pulses racing. No private insurance. No out-of-network charges. No premiums, deductibles or copays (or at most, $200 for non-preferred drugs, added to the legislative version Sanders introduced in September 2017).
Most healthcare experts, including progressive ones, were less enthusiastic. More than 150 million Americans get health insurance through employers, and most are satisfied. Ending that system would cause massive disruption. Eliminating cost-sharing would make cost control difficult – while the federal government would be footing the entire bill for everyone. Major new taxes would be required.
Enter the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the Democratic party, with a more incremental and phased-in plan that gradually draws together existing Medicare, Medicaid and employer-sponsored insurance systems. Importantly, employer-sponsored insurance would not go away, but its costs would be contained because the rates such plans pay to healthcare providers would be brought in line with the public program.
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