A Public Health Insurance Plan | OurFuture.org

A Public Health Insurance Plan OurFuture.org:

As the ball rolls along in our debate, one thing that keeps coming up is the idea that everyone must have insurance. Being forced to buy insurance from a private insurer ($15K a year at our house - from a "not-for-profit" !) is obviously not an option for most, especially considering the median family income is only about $60K. Medicare spends anywhere from $6K to $14K per enrollee (65 and over, mind you). So can a public option be the solution?

Here are the key findings of the report, but you can click the link above to get the full report, an executive summary and a PowerPoint show.

The report contains these findings:
• Medicare has controlled health care costs much better than have private health insurers over the last 25 years.
• The private insurance market is highly consolidated and needs competition from a public health insurance plan to lower skyrocketing premiums.
• Administrative costs are dramatically lower under public health insurance plans,
resulting in enormous savings to the system.
• The bargaining power of public health insurance plans significantly reduces provider costs.
• In a head-to-head competition, the public Medicare plan is much better at containing costs than private Medicare Advantage plans.
• Independent analyses show substantial savings can be achieved from a public health insurance plan that competes with private insurance plans.
• Quality and effectiveness innovations occurring under the public Medicare plan show that public health insurance plans have greater potential to drive the quality revolution than do private plans.
• Public health insurance plans increase choice, competition and accountability.

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