Thursday, June 15, 2017

Republicans May Pave The Way To Medicare For All

President Obama preferred a single payer system to the hybrid system that depended upon subsidies to private insurers and a weak mandate to force healthy people to enter the system.  He decided to structure ACA like the conservative system, implemented in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney, because he thought that it was more doable in our political system.  This article suggests that the Republicans are so eager to repeal ACA that they will push a very unpopular bill through the Congress that they control.  The fall out from its eventual failure will increase the political conditions for a single payer system that is less complicated than ACA and easier for the public to understand.  "Medicare for all" will sound good to a public that is familiar with Medicare.  The hybrid system being developed by the Senate will be forced to cut benefits and enrollments because it will cut funding by $600 billion in order to eliminate the tax built into ACA to pay for its subsidies. The GOP seems willing to risk its future in order to cut taxes for wealthy Americans.

No comments:

Post a Comment