Andrew Yang wants Medicare for All. Here’s how it gets paid for.
Andrew Yang is running for president as a Democrat in 2020. He is an entrepreneur who has some excellent ideas about Universal Basic Income and Medicare for All. In this blog post, I’m going to focus on his Medicare for All plan (which could also be called single-payer or universal health care).
When I look at Twitter, I see plenty of people who are in favor of Medicare for All. This group understands how beneficial it would be for Americans to be able to access affordable health care. Universal health care works in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
I also see a group of people who appear to be uneducated about what Medicare for All is. The most common question I’m seeing is: “How will it be paid for?”
A good place find the answer to that question is on Andrew Yang’s website. The section about Medicare for All says:
How much money do physicians and surgeons make at the Cleveland Clinic? Indeed.com has the answer to that question. They have a list of average salary for physicians and surgeons.
There is more information about The Salary-Based Comp Model at Cleveland Clinic. Some of the benefits of moving to a salary-based system include:
VeryWell Health has an article that explains what healthcare reimbursement is. Healthcare reimbursement describes the payment that your hospital, doctor, diagnostic facility, or other healthcare providers receive for giving you a medical service.
If you have private health insurance (from your employer, or from an “ObamaCare” marketplace) your healthcare providers are getting paid by the company you purchased health insurance from for the health care they provide you.
There are several big problems with this system. One involves a mechanism called prior authorizations. Health insurance companies may require that a doctor or hospital get permission from the insurer before providing treatment or prescribing medication. Insurers don’t have to be quick about determining whether or not to authorize the care — and this frustrates doctors and patients.
Another problem is that health insurance companies don’t cover all of the health care that a person needs. The insurer might cover part of the cost for a specific treatment or medication — and leave the person to pay for the rest out-of-pocket.
This is frustrating to people who are already paying the health insurance company for premiums and co-pays. It also makes it difficult for that person to find extra money to afford the health care and medication they need.
Some states, like California, have laws that protect people from “surprise bills” — bills that a person receives from a hospital that is in their network because one or more of the physicians who treated them was out of their network.
Other states do not have laws that protect consumers from the “surprise bill” problem. No one likes to be hit with a bill for things that they were led to believe would be covered by their health insurance company.
Take a look at GoFundMe, and you can see plenty of examples of another problem with with our current health care system. People who can’t afford health insurance coverage are expected to pay for all of their care out-of-pocket. Most can’t afford to do that on their own — and they end up delaying, or never receiving, the health care they require.
Medicare, however, is different. It is funded by two trust fund accounts that are held by the U.S. Treasury. Those funds can only be used for Medicare. It is funded by payroll taxes that are paid by most employees, employers, and people who are self-employed.
The funds pay for Medicare Part A (hospital insurance), benefits like inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility care, home health care, and hospice care. The funds also pay for Medicare program administration, which includes costs for paying benefits, collecting Medicare taxes, and fighting fraud and abuse.
There is also a Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. Those funds are authorized by Congress. It is funded by premiums from people who are enrolled in Medicare Part B (medical insurance) and Medicare Part D (prescription drug coverage). It pays for Part B benefits, Part D, and Medicare administration.
In other words, the United States already has a system in place that is similar to Andrew Yang’s plan. The difference is that his plan is for all people — not just the limited group that is eligible for Medicare coverage. It could be paid for just like Medicare is now — through payroll taxes.
To be clear, this is not a new tax. It is a tax that American workers and employers have already been regularly paying for decades.
CNBC reported that Canada has successfully implemented a single-payer system, “even though Canadians pay about the same amount in taxes as Americans”. The performance of Canada’s system ranked ninth in a 2017 study by the Commonwealth Fund comparing 11 health-income countries, where the American health-care system ranked last.
The Conversation has an informative article titled: “‘Medicare for all’ could be cheaper than you think”. It was written by Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst. The article was posted in 2017. Gerald Friedman wrote:
In short, Andrew Yang’s Medicare for All plan will work. It can be paid for the same way we are currently paying for Medicare. Every American would be eligible for Medicare for All. This means young and healthy people, who tend to not need as much health care as older, sicker people, would offset the costs.
Andrew Yang wants Medicare for All. Here’s how it gets paid for.
Research & References of Andrew Yang wants Medicare for All. Here’s how it gets paid for.|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
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