Press Release
November 20, 2019
ICYMI: New Scores of Medicare Buy-In and Full ACA Implementation
The Center for Health and Economy (H&E), a research initiative of the American Action Forum, has produced estimates of the cost and effects of two different health care policies: a Medicare buy-in and full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Using its Under-65 Microsimulation Model, H&E analyzed the impact of each on health insurance coverage, provider access, medical productivity, and the federal budget.
Both a Medicare buy-in and full implementation of the ACA provide routes to expanding coverage that are alternatives to a single-payer system, but both come with significant price tags and offer only marginal coverage expansions, the reports indicate.
Read the Score of H.R. 1364, “The Medicare Buy-in and Health Care Stabilization Act of 2019”
Read the Score of Full ACA Implementation
Read AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin on the Scores
An excerpt from Holtz-Eakin’s analysis:
The moral is that the goal of (literally) universal coverage is not reasonable, given the underlying cost of care. Only if health care delivery systems become a better value will there be the interest and feasibility of every individual in buying insurance. The route to universal coverage runs through reforms that make the health care sector more productive and efficient.
