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As Americans learn more about proposed new government-controlled health insurance systems – like Medicare for All, the public option, Medicare buy-in and other similar one-size-fits-all systems – a new study on teh aftermath of Single Payer by KNG Health Consulting is providing a glimpse into the real-life consequences these systems could have on American families. 

50% of Americans would give it thumbs up according to Kaiser Family Foundation. That majority support turns to opposition once people learn Medicare for All would ban private insurance. Turns out 70% of Americans are also satisfied with their employer-sposnored health insuarnce.   The plan grants the federal government a monopoly on health insurance — no private insurers or employers would be permitted to pay for health benefits.

Many Americans would understandably switch from private insurance to the public option. As they did so, hospitals and doctors would raise prices for the privately insured to compensate. Insurers would be forced to hike premiums in response, to cover providers’ higher payment demands. That would compel even more individuals to switch to the public option.

Some employers would surely do the same, dropping their benefits programs and encouraging their workers to enroll in the public plan. Indeed, a recent study from KNG Health Consulting found that Medicare for America — a proposal that would transfer everyone who does not receive coverage through an employer to a government-run plan — would cause one in four workers to lose access to employer-sponsored insurance by 2023. More than half of employees at small businesses would lose their employer-sponsored coverage under Medicare for America.

Among the most startling findings, Medicare for America could force one-third of American workers off of their current employer-provided health care coverage, also known as employer-sponsored insurance (ESI). 

 

The KNG study on “Medicare for America” points to an unaffordable new government-controlled health insurance system that reduces Americans’ choice and control over their care.  Whether it’s called Medicare for All, Medicare for America, Medicare buy-in or the public option, Americans would pay more and wait longer for worse care.

And instead of addressing rising health care costs, the study finds that this new government-controlled health insurance system “would increase total health care spending, with the largest spending increases occurring among those who already had public coverage through Medicare or Medicaid.”

 

Hospitals would lose. Approximately 5,000 community hospitals would lose over $151 billion under a Medicare for All system, according to a recent Stanford University study. Robert Pollin — an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and supporter of Medicare for All — estimates that 2 million jobs across hospitals, health care facilities and the insurance industry could disappear.

According to CBO (Congressional Budget Office) that Medicare for All could “lead to a shortage of providers, longer wait times and changes in the quality of care.”

Ultimately, the public option would be the ONLY option. The insurance market can’t function unless all the players in the market are operating by the same rules.As Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, rightly put it, “The public option is a Trojan horse” for Medicare for All.

So which one is it?  An added public option that doesn’t have to compete or really one costly government option? Both options seem to fall short of their ideals.   

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