Republican health plan vs. the public option

Economist Jeffrey Sachs
praising The People's Budget

In the absence of any kind of real healthcare reform plan from the Republicans (the erstwhile "replace" part of their "repeal and replace" mantra of 2010), you have to assume that their plan is the Ryan plan, abolishing Medicare and turning it into vouchers and gutting Medicaid.

Since that's the only plan we've got from them, Ezra Klein does a bit of compare and contrast between it and one of the cornerstones of the progressive approach to both healthcare reform and the budget.

If you want to understand why the budget debate so infuriates people who actually care about deficits?and, in particular, people who actually care about health-care spending?consider this: The central health-care reform in Paul Ryan's budget, the one that's got him so many plaudits for courage, would actually increase costs. The health-care reform that progressives have been pursuing for more than two years would cut them. And yet calling for Medicare to be privatized and voucherized is considered serious, while calling for a public option is considered tiresome. But let's go to the tape.

Back during the health-care reform fight, the Congressional Budget Office looked at the likely effect of adding a public option that paid Medicare rates. "In total, a public plan based on Medicare rates would save $110 billion over 10 years," the agency concluded. Importantly, the savings would come because premiums would be lower. The basic mechanism here is not complicated: Just as you get better deals by shopping at a mega-retailer like Wal-Mart, you get better deals by working with a mega-insurer like Medicare. Size matters.

As for Ryan's plan, CBO’s take was just the opposite. "Under the proposal," they said, "most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system." That is to say, health-care costs go up.

As Atrios always says, they really don't care about the deficit, those Republicans. It is, however, important to note that the Progressive Caucus has got some Very Serious People love, in the form of an editorial in The Economist for its real deficit-cutting measures in the People's Budget. Those measures include a public option.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/DnkEOQlWN-M/-Republican-health-plan-vs-the-public-option

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