Affordable Care Act may be way to total coverage
WASHINGTON — Health care memo to Democrats: There’s more than one way to get to coverage for all.
A study out Wednesday finds that an approach similar to the plan from former Vice President Joe Biden can deliver about the same level of coverage as the governmentrun “Medicare for All” plan from presidential rival Bernie Sanders.
The study from the Commonwealth Fund and the Urban Institute think tanks concludes that the U.S. can achieve a goal that has eluded Democrats since Harry Truman by building on former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The researchers modeled a range of health care overhaul scenarios from tweaks to Obama’s law to a full governmentrun singlepayer plan like Sanders is proposing.
The study found that a full governmentrun plan like Sanders’ would cover all U.S. residents, including people in the country without legal authorization. That adds up to more than 30 million currently uninsured people.
However, it would increase U.S. health care spending because of generous benefits with no copays and deductibles.
The Commonwealth FundUrban Institute study also modeled options resembling the plan that Biden is pushing.
It starts with more generous subsidies for “Obamacare” plans and Medicaid expansion in states that have so far refused it. Then it adds a “public option” plan based on Medicare. People with employer coverage would be able to pick the public plan. There would be a mechanism to sign up all those eligible for coverage.
Such an approach would reduce the number of uninsured by about 80%, the study estimated. That would still leave nearly 7 million U.S. residents without coverage, mainly people who don’t have legal permission to be in the country. Under Biden’s plan, taxpayer subsidies would be available only to U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Employer coverage would decline by about 10% as some lowincome workers switch to the public option.