Interesting Read! http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm?id=2603
Health care for America
A proposal for guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans building on Medicare and employment-based insurance
by Jacob S. Hacker
At heart, it rests on the time-tested idea of social insurance, the notion that major financial risks should be pooled as widely as possible across rich and poor, healthy and sick, young and old. Health Care for America would create a large publicly overseen insurance pool that would bargain for lower prices, capitalize on the vast administrative efficiencies of a single insurer, and use its reach and purchasing power to spearhead improvements in the quality and cost-effectiveness of medical care.
Health Care for America also rests on the conviction that the Medicare model has a proven track record—and a huge amount of untapped potential—when it comes to controlling costs and improving care. Sustaining Medicare's vital promise to the aged and disabled does not require abandoning the Medicare model, as critics of the program frequently claim. It requires extending the model to those without secure workplace coverage, filling some of the glaring gaps that remain in Medicare, and allowing the two programs to work jointly to hold down costs and improve the quality of care.
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