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The Medicare for America Act, soon to be updated and reintroduced by Reps Rosa DeLauro and Jean Schakowsky, is a true "Medicare for anyone" bill. Any employer can buy in* by paying 8% of payroll, and any individual can opt in and pay between $0 and 9.69% of income (on a siding scale) for a plan to be accepted by all providers who accept current Medicare -- i.e. virtually all providers.
While the bill allows employers to keep providing insurance and preserves Medicare Advantage in the individual market, some people appear to read the bill as a phase-out of private insurance. Kirsten Gillibrand, for example, in a town hall earlier this week, touted a Medicare buy-in for anyone at "4-5% of income" and suggested, "Those insurers -- I don't think they're going to compete...over a couple of years, you're going to transition into single payer."
That would not likely be the case if Medicare for America were to become law, at least not in its current iteration. While low income workers would probably mostly end up in the public program, the bill creates conditions under which employers might still find a competitive advantage in offering top-drawer coverage to higher-paid workers. It also creates conditions under which Medicare Advantage and Medigap policies might compete.
The Medicare for America Act, soon to be updated and reintroduced by Reps Rosa DeLauro and Jean Schakowsky, is a true "Medicare for anyone" bill. Any employer can buy in* by paying 8% of payroll, and any individual can opt in and pay between $0 and 9.69% of income (on a siding scale) for a plan to be accepted by all providers who accept current Medicare -- i.e. virtually all providers.
While the bill allows employers to keep providing insurance and preserves Medicare Advantage in the individual market, some people appear to read the bill as a phase-out of private insurance. Kirsten Gillibrand, for example, in a town hall earlier this week, touted a Medicare buy-in for anyone at "4-5% of income" and suggested, "Those insurers -- I don't think they're going to compete...over a couple of years, you're going to transition into single payer."
That would not likely be the case if Medicare for America were to become law, at least not in its current iteration. While low income workers would probably mostly end up in the public program, the bill creates conditions under which employers might still find a competitive advantage in offering top-drawer coverage to higher-paid workers. It also creates conditions under which Medicare Advantage and Medigap policies might compete.
