Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Commonwealth Proposal – Government panelists are listening.

Breaking news reported by Wyckoff at CQ HealthBeat. Posted by Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, there may be some groundbreaking soon. On Friday, health experts and lawmakers met for a panel discussion. The topic was “Expanding Health Coverage to Uninsured Via 'Early Medicare' Program”. The Commonwealth Fund proposed a plan to cover about 92% of the current 48 million Americans who don’t have health insurance. They are proposing a government-run ‘connector’ authority to offer low-cost health insurance to the many that can’t afford it now. Included, is a plan that is built on the Medicare model, called ‘Medicare Extra’. The plan would be funded in a few different ways. One of those is that employers would be mandated to either provide health insurance to their workers, or else pay into the fund. This could be as high as 7% of payroll. It is expected that this will provide about $45 billion for the fund.

Tax credits would be used to regulate various levels. For lower income families, the credits will limit the burden of cost of premiums to a maximum of 5% of their pay. Higher-income brackets would be allowed to reach 10%, according to another Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report. For greater efficiency, the plan also revamps many current systems, such as “health information technology, evidence-based medicine, public health and the health payment system.” The ‘Medicare Extra’ plan is expected to lower premium costs to be 30% lower than the employer-based health insurance plans. House Ways and Means Committee Democratic staff director, Cybele Bjorklund assessed that “Medicare would be a good model for expanding health insurance because it is efficient and providers prefer it over private insurance,” reports CQ HealthBeat.