Buttigieg's whole facade is that he's the young and intelligent moderate, a young Joe Biden, supposedly. His supporters love to scream about the fact that he would be the first gay president or that his wonkish and convoluted views on policy are exactly what's needed in order to break congressional deadlock, especially on healthcare policy.
His plan - 'Medicare for all who want it' - is essentially a public option in which people will still keep their extremely expensive, price-gouging health insurance but if you are no longer able to afford the high costs you will be 'automatically enrolled' into the public option or the government plan where the cost is subsidised.
Libby Watson wrote about the various holes in Buttigieg's plan in New Republic. In one very damning paragraph, Watson explains how Buttigieg's plan has already quietly acknowledged that there would be various stumbling blocks when it comes to the automatic enrollment part of his plan, which is why the plan includes an additional "backstop fund" to "reimburse health care providers for care delivered to patients that are uninsured."
The grand idea with Pete's plan is that if you have no insurance and need to go to the doctors or a hospital for care, the government will then cover the cost. Which, as Watson mentioned, is frankly ridiculous. Why would anyone choose to pay insurance premiums if they know they could have the government pick up the tab instead?
Within this plan, what is to stop for-profit health insurance companies moving the sickest people into the governmental public option? This would save these companies vast amounts of money as they would no longer have to pay for the medical costs of the people who use medical services the most. After all, insurance companies make their money by covering healthy people who make monthly payments to them but very rarely actually need any substantial medical care, younger people for example.
A further problem that the article from Watson mentions is the sheer cost of such a plan. There is constant fear mongering about the 'trillions of dollars and huge tax increases' needed in order to implement Medicare for All, even though Medicare for All actually saves money.
Part of Pete's plan, the reimbursement of insurance companies with the "backstop fund" is extremely costly. Currently, hospitals basically make up the prices they charge people and there is also extreme variation in prices region to region or state to state. As Watson states, it would be ridiculous for the government to just pay these prices that are essentially made up in the first place.
There are currently two going rates when in comes to healthcare costs, a Medicare rate, which is lower than what insurance usually pays and Medicaid rates, which are even lower than Medicare rates. The insurance companies will not be happy getting less money than that their care is deemed to cost, dependent on if the person is enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid. Watson asks, who will make up the difference? How long before insurance providers start chasing up those undergoing care for the difference between the government reimbursement and their arbitrary costs?
Pete Buttigeig's plan fails to answer all of these questions, from how exactly the automatic enrollment will be done to what about people that aren't eligible for Medicaid or a free public option, or how specifically would you stop the insurance industry from moving swathes of extremely sick people into the government option in order to minimize their costs?
There's a reason Bernie Sanders is trusted the most on healthcare policy.
Comments
Post a Comment