Toward universal coverage: A bestiary of Democratic healthcare bills

I have a post up at BlueWaveNJ that offers a framework for assessing more than a half dozen Democratic bills that would build on or replace the ACA to move the U.S. closer to universal healthcare. Here's the premise:

The extent to which these various bills address the demand for affordability can be viewed in two dimensions.

First is the degree to which they make coverage more affordable and reduce out-of-pocket costs for the ACA's original intended beneficiaries: those who lack access to other affordable insurance, mainly employer-sponsored insurance. Second is the degree to which they impact affordability for the 150-plus million current enrollees in employer plans.

A third question is the degree to which each bill reduces healthcare costs on a per person basis, including costs paid by government. Most (not all) Medicare expansion/public option bills increase the population enrolled in plans paying Medicare rates to healthcare providers, as opposed to much higher commercial rates. Most also establish some kind of drug pricing commission enabling Medicare to negotiate or regulate prescription drug prices.

The post, an updated and somewhat streamlined version of this one, overviews seven bills.  Hope you'll take a look.

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