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The American Hospital Association has commissioned a study by KNG Health Consulting that fires a warning shot against any expansion of public coverage that draws people out of the private market.
The report purports to show that the Medicare-X Choice Act introduced in 2017 by Senators Bennet and Kaine, establishing a strong national public option in the ACA marketplace, would cut healthcare spending by $1.2 trillion over ten years. Hospital spending would account for $774 billion of the total. The study also forecasts that 5.5 million uninsured people would gain coverage.
As U.S. per capita healthcare spending is more than double the OECD average, one might think that cutting costs while increasing coverage would be cause for celebration. Of course the AHA doesn't see it that way, and warns of dire results for hospitals resulting from some 35 million people* shifting from private to a public plan that pays Medicare rates for services. Leaving aside assumptions about hospitals' adaptability, and the study's calculations with respect to hospital revenue, its assumptions about the impact of Medicare-X on enrollment in private insurance strike me as dubious.
The American Hospital Association has commissioned a study by KNG Health Consulting that fires a warning shot against any expansion of public coverage that draws people out of the private market.
The report purports to show that the Medicare-X Choice Act introduced in 2017 by Senators Bennet and Kaine, establishing a strong national public option in the ACA marketplace, would cut healthcare spending by $1.2 trillion over ten years. Hospital spending would account for $774 billion of the total. The study also forecasts that 5.5 million uninsured people would gain coverage.
As U.S. per capita healthcare spending is more than double the OECD average, one might think that cutting costs while increasing coverage would be cause for celebration. Of course the AHA doesn't see it that way, and warns of dire results for hospitals resulting from some 35 million people* shifting from private to a public plan that pays Medicare rates for services. Leaving aside assumptions about hospitals' adaptability, and the study's calculations with respect to hospital revenue, its assumptions about the impact of Medicare-X on enrollment in private insurance strike me as dubious.
