Back just before Biden was sworn in, I suggested that “Medicare for Most” should be the philosophy of his medical plans. The US already has a system in place for public funding of healthcare, the trick is to gradually get more and more people into this plan.
Step one would be to end the medicare/medicaid split. Because Medicaid is directed primarily at poor children, it’s an easy target for anti-welfare sentiments. Make it all one program, and make entry requirements for new kids as easy as it is for new seniors. Hopefully making it one program will reduce the stigma surrounding kids’ coverage. We can swing this as reducing the costs to private health care plans, because now businesses wouldn’t have to cover the employee’s kids any more. Cost Effective!
Step two would be to gradually make more and more people eligible for this new Medicare for Most plan. Reduce the age at which adults are allowed to join, and increase the age at which kids age out of the system. Over maybe 20 years, we gradually shrink the gap between these two coverages. Eventually we’ll have a kid born who loses the early age qualification the same day they qualify for the older age qualification, and at that point, private health insurance is no longer needed. The insurance industry has a couple of decades of gradually decreasing clientele, so have the time needed to gradually reduce their work force, or shift their business model to something sustainable under the new program.
Politically, I think this could be a winner. Voters in their 50s would see that every year we reduce the older age qualification puts them one year closer to not paying thousands for insurance, and maybe additional thousands for co-pays and “out of network” crap. Voters who just turned 18 will see that every year we increase the younger age qualification pushes back their own need for that kind of outlay. For people just starting their careers, this kind of economic benefit would be a huge improvement in their lives.