No. of Recommendations: 3
Yes, medicare buy-in is a fantasy, not likely to happen. Would be quite nice for me, though.
That last statement is one of the real sticking points - most people think that being able to participate in Medicare would be "quite nice" for them. But one of the big reasons that Medicare is so popular is because it charges a premium that's only a tiny fraction of the cost of coverage. You get $19K worth of health care coverage for $3K. That's "quite nice" for anyone. Medicare doesn't charge an actuarily fair premium. The reason seniors are able to get that price is because they (as a group) have been pre-paying into Medicare for their entire working lives.
That's the political danger of proposals like Krugman's - or "Medicare for All" in general. Some people's perception of Medicare is "super-cheap health insurance." If people think that getting to participate in Medicare means that they'll get the chance to buy health insurance for fifteen cents on the dollar, and that's why they like it, they'll be disappointed.
Sure, most folks might be shocked that Medicare costs $19k/patient on average. Healthcare for people from age 65-death is expensive. The buy-in folks would be younger, and presumably a bit cheaper. I see Medicaid spends about $11k/enrollee.
The second lowest silver ACA plan for Mrs. C. and me is $23k. That's with a health insurance company hardly anyone has heard of, with an extremely narrow network.
A silver plan has an actuarial value of 70%, so let's say our current healthcare cost is $23/0.7 = $33k.
kff.org - Subsidy calculatorIt would totally be worth it to us to get Medicare level coverage for $38k. Where do I sign?
Admittedly, we are not typical.
