Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing Policies: Forget Tearing Up Existing Health Plans. Go With Public Option; Important Answers Missing From Harris, Warren On Single Payer
Commentators have focused on the aggressive health-care agendas of Democratic candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Yet of the 20 candidates in last month鈥檚 debates, only four said they favored single payer, or Medicare for All. The rest favored a public option鈥攁 better approach. Most Americans want universal coverage but not a radical change tearing up existing plans. Medicare buy-in for nonelderly Americans is an incremental reform that would improve access and lower costs. (Tsung-Mei Cheng, 7/14)
Since Warren and Harris had previously been ambiguous about single-payer, I posed some questions to each camp. Do they support Sanders鈥 four-year transition period? How would they fund single-payer, and what do they say to those who prefer to keep their employer-sponsored plans? (Scot Lehigh, 7/11)
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) vetoed three health insurance bills that would have made it possible for small-business owners and independent contractors to band together and purchase group health insurance plans at competitive rates. These group health insurance plans sponsored by associations, known as multiple-employer welfare arrangements, are fully funded or self-funded by a benefits consortium of small-business employers who pool their resources together to offer their employees comprehensive affordable group health coverage on terms similar to those available to larger employers. (Amir Bajoghli, 7/13)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis ruled in a 1932 decision that a 鈥渟tate may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.鈥 This spring, Connecticut leaders stepped up to be a model for the entire country through their efforts to make quality health care more accessible and affordable. The Connecticut Option, an innovative compromise negotiated by state leaders, represents a new type of public-private partnership that would offer Connecticut residents a lower-cost health plan starting in 2022. (Joanna Dornfeld, 7/14)
