Medicare for All

Medicare for All

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Medicare for All

Medicare is a public program that is run by the government, and it was first initiated in 1965. The costs used to run the program come from the taxpayers, and this is done through the funds that are paid through paychecks for the purpose of social security. As such, these costs are known to cover the various hospital and doctors’ expenses. The best way of revamping the Affordable Care Act is through the expansion of Medicare for all. As such, this article will look at the strategy as well as the general summary of the benefits and drawbacks of moving this initiative for future use (Liu, & Eibner, 2019).

Medicare for All

This program that is still in use currently is used to cover all those Americans who have attained the age of 65 years and above. It has seen the quality of health in America improve, and the various bodies, as well as individuals, provide positive feedback about how the quality of care has enhanced since the enrolment of the program. Those policymakers are working hard day and night to expand on this concept of Medicare for All in the future to accommodate and cover all the citizens through the future plans and ensuring that the plans are incorporated in the law to make sure that it covers permanent residents. Other activists are for the fact that the law should lower the minimum age of those who can use the policy to access medication. The suggestions made by these groups are in line with the government’s plans to have universal health coverage for American citizens. For instance, in 2016, during the presidential bid of Bernie Sanders, the matter was revived even though it was not something new as the idea of universal healthcare had long been introduced. Bernie Sanders introduced the bill in 2017.

The current state of our nation is that healthcare accessibility consists of those people who have ensured themselves and others are privately insured by the private entities, who are their employers. The public sector mainly consists of Medicare and Medicaid as the insurers of the public members as there is a law that requires every member of the society to be insured. It is an implication that if the plan is improved and amended as required by the majority of the activists in the future, then the members who have been in the private form of insurance would also join the public system of Medicare and Medicaid. Of course, the plan would manage to provide a comprehensive cover to the people without copays that do not have deductibles. Also, the option of having copays and no elective as well as cosmetic procedures. Other care that needs to be included in the services includes care of emergency care, inpatient, vision, and dental services to help the healthcare sector provide quality services at affordable prices (Song, 2019).

Strategy and Concept of Medicare for All

The Socialist Party was the first group that coined the concept of universal healthcare services to America in 1904. This was strengthened in 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt, who was the candidate of the party, emphasized the idea of single national health services. Even though he did not win, his idea of universal healthcare formed the major part of the facet discussion in American politics by then. He attempted to pass and advocate for single-payer advocacy that had been intended to be part of the Social Security Act. The concept was continued by Franklin Roosevelt, who tried to pass the effort of introducing the idea of single-national health care for the people in the community. However, in 2003, the concept of Medicare for All was again reintroduced in the form of a single-payer plan.

Nonetheless, currently, the concept of Medicare is viewed to form the umbrella of the Americans to ensure that the people have healthcare coverage, and this will allow the various plans that are meant to improve the healthcare facilities to fall under this concept of Medicare umbrella. These other supplements are considered to be the public option, and they are not meant to replace any private insurance as these will still provide a guaranteed universal coverage as a single-payer system. Bernie Sanders ensured that Medicare for All covered the people universally, and about 40% of the republicans were supporting the concept, as shown by the Kaiser Family Foundation poll. According to the proposals of Sanders, it was possible for all Americans to have a comprehensive health cover without taking the responsibility of the copays, premiums, and deductibles on behalf of the people who are insured. Therefore, it would be the responsibility of the government to ensure these people. The additional services offered would include hospital care and preventative services, dental, and vision.

The Positives of Medicare for All

The greatest benefit of Medicare for All is that it has given everyone a good opportunity to access medical care. Nonetheless, the introduction of the Affordable Care Act that was introduced was meant for every individual and to enable them to have access to healthcare facilities; the system is not realistic because many people cannot afford it despite the intentions of providing an affordable act. Therefore, the benefits of Medicare are that it has eliminated deductibles, copays, insurances, and the premiums of healthcare (Johnson, Kishore, & Berwick, 2020). It gave the opportunity to people to seek medication whenever they needed it, and therefore, people can easily prevent chronic ailments due to the accessibility of these healthcare facilities. It is not only the people but also the businesses that benefited from the introduction of Medicare. It is because it has created more jobs and ensured that many people are employed, and it is also evident that it has reduced the burden of employers who have been paying for their workers. It is a possible reason as to why they need to increase the wages of their workers and creates room for more opportunities for a job. In favor of the employers, it is possible that they now have a range of opportunities from which they can select jobs. It is because an employee cannot stay with one employer if they feel that they are unhappy with them due to the benefits that they get as health benefits. It is possible for the government to create more job opportunities as the system requires complete reformation and the management of the various program (Shepard, Baicker, & Skinner, 2020).

The Negatives of Medicare for All

Despite the various positive aspects of Medicare for All, there exist some negative aspects that include the high taxation system to enable the healthcare facilities to pay for the program. Following the current proposal, it is required that 2.2% of the tax needs to be increased on every person whose salary is considered to be less than $20,000 annually. Also, the high population increases the ratio of care providers to patients, and this will lead to an extension of the time that is taken by the patients when visiting the healthcare practitioners. The most affected groups are the specialized care, whose ratio compared to the population is small. This causes burnout. The current assumption is that every individual will be required to seek medication and treatment, and this, according to statistics, shows that it will be a huge group of people visiting the healthcare facility and therefore, creating more waiting time.

Even though the new system calls for the creation of more jobs, as discussed earlier and which is a benefit, then the transformation requires resources to be implemented and make sure that the changes within the healthcare facilities are well organized (Oberlander, 2019). The resources that the government has a need to divert them to these programs to make it effective, and this is costing the government a lot. It is negative since other similar programs such as the one on national parks and the education system form parts of the resources that need to be pulled together to make sure that they have attained the target. The introduction of Medicare has eliminated the various competitions that they have been in the healthcare sector. Even though this plan would not completely eliminate the competition, then it is evident that it will reduce them. By this, it is the private sector that is being affected, and the competition that it had initially means that the sector may not provide as quality as services as compared to when there is competition.

Conclusions Regarding Medicare for All

Selected Healthcare Plan

This plan is crucial because it will help in shaping the healthcare sector. The private sector will be diminished with time as the attention of the healthcare practitioner is shifted towards the Medicare. Also, the future of Medicare is that it would be easier for the government to make these implementations if proper channels about the matter are followed. Also, the future aspect of this program is that it is likely to eliminate the future sources of insurances, such as the private entities that usually insure the workers. In the future, the triggered deficits that occur due to the worries of the expanding entitlements and the republican and democrats are likely to benefit from the system because of the imposition of taxes (Liu, & Eibner, 2019).

Since the introduction of the Medicare system, its growth has been considered to have improved by about 2.4% faster as compared to the GDP of America in the past 30 years. The projection shows that if similar growth will continue in America, then it is possible that by 2082, it is likely to have the total GDP to be contributed by Medicare in a ratio of about 31% (Housman et al., 2003). In 2010, the projections that were made about healthcare showed that there was the spending of about $2.6 trillion, and this accounted for about 17%. Therefore, it is arguable that using the historical rates; if the health care spending does not remain the same, then it is evident that there are various ways that the people need to understand how the issue of healthcare goes and how it can be resolved in future following the past trends. The government has to understand that the various changes that are being witnessed need to be considered to make sure that the future of the healthcare sector in America is secure, and there is a need to have a better approach to this. The future of the healthcare sector will solely depend on how the technological tools and how these tools will be used to improve on the status of the quality that is offered in the healthcare facilities, and therefore, the lower costs needs to be achieved too.

In conclusion, it is arguable that there have been many proposals that were made many years ago to ensure that there is a universal healthcare delivery system. The three major concepts that have been considered to have gained momentum can be addressed through the following recommendations: the creation of a system of single-payer, Medicare for all, and Medicare Buy-in system that was meant for the people. Even though the concept of Medicare for All is such a great idea and has many benefits, then it is evident that the system may be challenging when implementing due to the fact that it requires a lot of finance.

ReferencesHousman, T. S., Feldman, S. R., Williford, P. M., Fleischer Jr, A. B., Goldman, N. D., Acostamadiedo, J. M., & Chen, G. J. (2003). Skin cancer is among the most costly of all cancers to treat for the Medicare population. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 48(3), 425-429.

Johnson, M., Kishore, S., & Berwick, D. M. (2020). Medicare For All: An Analysis Of Key Policy Issues: A discussion of design issues and options raised by pending Medicare for All legislation and proposals. Health Affairs, 39(1), 133-141.

Liu, J. L., & Eibner, C. (2019). National health spending estimates under Medicare for all.

Oberlander, J. (2019). Navigating the shifting terrain of US health care reform—Medicare for all, single-payer, and the public option. The Milbank Quarterly, 97(4).

Shepard, M., Baicker, K., & Skinner, J. (2020). Does One Medicare Fit All? The Economics of Uniform Health Insurance Benefits. Tax Policy and the Economy, 34(1), 1-41.

Song, Z. (2019). The pricing of care under Medicare for all: Implications and policy choices. Jama, 322(5), 395-397.