Every American Should Be Able to Choose Medicare
The most popular health care plan in the country is Medicare. It delivers the best care at the lowest cost — it’s better than any other part of our health care system. But most people can only get it when they’re over 65.
I don’t think you should have to wait that long.
That’s why I teamed up with Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon to introduce The Choose Medicare Act.
The Choose Medicare Act will let people of all ages buy into Medicare as their health care plan and it would let any business also buy into Medicare and offer it to its employees.
This new Medicare plan, also known as Medicare Part E, would be offered on all State and Federal Exchanges and people could use their existing ACA subsidies to help pay for it. Employers could also choose to select this new Medicare plan instead of private insurance to cover their employees. Choose Medicare would build on the existing network and low administrative costs of the Medicare program and it would help save even more money by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. The plan will cover the same benefits as traditional Medicare, as well as new benefits like reproductive care, to meet the needs of younger patients.
I think, that if given the choice between a private insurance plan and Medicare, the majority of people will choose Medicare.
There’s no denying that if I were designing a health care system from scratch, I’d build a Medicare for All system.
But opening up Medicare to anyone who wants to buy it will help us build on the system we have and brings us one huge step closer to affordable coverage for everyone.
Having Medicare as an option when you buy insurance will force the private companies to be more competitive, bringing down costs for everyone.
It also tests the idea that Medicare is the right benefit for everyone by allowing consumers and businesses to choose for themselves. If Medicare is indeed cheaper and better coverage, I think it’s best to let consumers make that choice.
This is a simple, but long overdue idea. I’m going to fight for it to become law.
