Health, Health Healthcare
August 13th, 2014 1 Minute Read Report by Avik Roy

Transcending Obamacare: A Patient-Centered Plan for Near-Universal Coverage and Permanent Fiscal Solvency

In 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the "Affordable Care Act," the "ACA," or "Obamacare." The ACA will reduce the number of Americans without health insurance—an important goal—but it will do so by increasing the cost of U.S. health coverage. Increasing the cost of health coverage, in turn, will worsen two of the nation's most important policy problems.

The Affordable Care Act  (ACA) will reduce the number of Americans without health insurance—an important goal—but it will do so by increasing the cost of U.S. health coverage. Increasing the cost of health coverage will worsen two of America’s most important policy problems: the increasing unaffordability of private health insurance and the nation’s grave long-term fiscal instability.

  • The proposal contained herein—the “Universal Exchange Plan” (UEP)—seeks to substantially repair both sets of health-policy problems: those caused by the ACA and those that predate it; the UEP’s reforms are also perfectly compatible with the “repeal and replace” approach, but they do not require the full and formal repeal of the ACA in order to be enacted.
  • The UEP would, by 2025, increase the number of U.S. residents with health coverage by 12.1 million, relative to the ACA; beyond 2025, the UEP would outperform the ACA by an even wider margin.
  • The UEP would also: expand economic opportunity for those struggling with high medical bills, improve the quality of health care delivered to the poor, and put America's finances on a permanently stable course.

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