No memes this week, sorry Jables. Just healthcare policy.
Here's how I would expand Medicare to create an incremental Medicare-For-All rollout:
- These things would change immediately:
- Payout would change from the 80s% rate to 105% of care cost
- Change the age range from 65+ to 50+ for full medical coverage
- Increase payroll tax by 2.5% (1.25%/1.25%/2.5%)
- Create a trust fund (MediCare Trust Fund/MCTF) where any and all additional money would go and build up, similar to the Social Security Trust Fund
- Everyone else gets these things (one point each year, being implemented each year until the end of the list):
- Drug rehabilitation and recovery for 90 days (minimum, maybe 120 or 180 [could be situational, depending on the drug addiction being treated, different lengths of time could be needed])
- Cover cancer treatments and oncological assessments/consultations
- Pay for Emergency Room visits
- Take on all medication and prescription costs
- Increase payroll tax by 0.5% (0.25%/0.25%/0.5%)
- Add the age range 0 - 18 to full Medicare coverage
- Expand the younger age range to be 18-26
- Take on all organ transplant costs
- Expand the upper age range to 40+
- Cover everyone from the ages of birth to death
We should offer the people who work in the insurance industry jobs in the expanded Medicare network and roll in Medicaid into that, too.
If you wanted a more France-like system, I would consider skipping the last 2 bullet points, create a public option, and have healthcare costs come directly out of people's paychecks (with a maximum premium/paycheck payout cap of 7% [I think that's what it is in France]).
Public Option options:
- Deductible of:
- Covering the first doctor's visit would cost more than not (not covering is the default option)
- Co-pay rates:
- Out-of-Pocket Maximums:
- All of the options should be mix-and-match as you please
- $1500 deductible + 50% co-pay + $7500 out-of-pocket maximum? Sure, go on ahead. It'll be cheap but unfulfilling.
- $500 deductible + 10% co-pay + $2500 out-of-pocket maximum? Why not? I mean, it'll cost more, but you should still be able to purchase it (so long as it's less than 7% of your income)
