Funding Medicare for All

Can we afford Medicare for All? Given that health care in America costs per capita twice that of all the other industrialized nations with some form of single-payer with the same or worse outcomes, I should think so. But even with our current Medicare system, there’s an identifiable source of waste, fraud and abuse that could be eliminated—Medicare Advantage.

“A recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis projects that the federal government will pay between 5% and 10% more for Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollees than traditional Medicare (TM), and estimates that for a given person MA costs about 15% more than TM. This suggests the federal government will spend about $1 trillion on MA overpayments over the next decade, which is in line with other estimates. Reducing these overpayments can help to lower health care costs and reduce budget deficits.

 

“Medicare Advantage (MA) is the privately-managed, government-funded alternative to traditional fee-for-service Medicare (TM). Although MA can often be more efficient than traditional Medicare, it ends up being more costly for the federal government due to upcoding, favorable selection, the quality bonus program, and other features. The risk-adjusted payments made to the MA plans tend to far exceed the likely actual cost of delivering health care to beneficiaries.”

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