Paper Sample on Biden's Healthcare Proposal

Introduction

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, unveiled his healthcare proposal that touches on five key pillars, namely, reducing Medicare age to 60, installing a public option that will be run by the government, boosting the Affordable Care Act, stopping surprise billing and prescription drug reform (Crow, 2020). Biden's proposal to reduce the Medicare age to 60 years would increase the number of Americans who benefit from the health insurance program by approximately 20 million. Currently, to benefit from the program, one has been 65 years and above unless for those who have chronic diseases or those who are disabled. Biden indicated that his proposal would not lead to the reduction of the Medicare trust fund, but funding will be from regular tax revenues. Lowering the eligibility is a plus for the potential beneficiaries as they are likely to be the unhealthiest group.

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Creating a Government-Run Public Option

The government-funded healthcare program will be available for everyone, including the beneficiaries in the ACA exchanges, people who unsatisfied with the coverage sponsored by the employer, and those who are not insured (Crow, 2020). There are 4.8 million people in states that Medicaid is not expanded, and they will be allowed to enroll in the public option at no or minimal premiums as they are eligible only that they cannot access the Medicaid program. This alternative will be of a lower cost as compared to private insurance. Biden expects that the proposal will lead to a reduced cost of private insurance by acting as a competitor.

Enhance the Affordable Care Act

Biden plans to strengthen the Affordable Care Act as it has significantly reduced the number of Americans who have no healthcare insurance coverage. Biden plans to implement several measures to strengthen the ACA marketplace ad lower the insurance costs on exchanges (Crow, 2020). In his proposal, Biden wants to shift from determining subsidies based on the silver plan to the gold plan, which has an actuarial value of 80 percent. He also aims at reducing the percentage of share income that beneficiaries from subsidized families from the current 9.8 percent to 8.5 percent.

Cease Surprise Billing

Surprise billing is most common in private hospitals and in markets with high provider concentration and payer markets. By dismantling the surprise billing, approximately $ 40 billion would be saved annually (Crow, 2020). This means that the total health spending of people who are covered by insurance that are sponsored by employers would decrease by 3.4 percent. Biden plans to address the issue by preventing the providers from charging patients rates that they cannot control. Biden also plans to deal with market concentration through the use of antitrust authority.

Impacts of Biden’s Healthcare Proposal

Employers will face challenges if Biden's healthcare proposal is implemented, the employers will incur more expenses. Employees and their family members will want to be enrolled in an employer-sponsored plan; thus, Medicare will be expensive for employers (Crow, 2020). Companies and businesses will have to allocate more resources for employee insurance, and thus the profit that the company used to make will be reduced due to the additional costs. Companies have employees between the ages of 60 and 65; thus, companies will have more employees and additional costs to pay for their employees. Companies aim at reducing costs to maximize profit, and thus the Biden proposal might make companies consider private healthcare plans for their employees.

Companies that have few employees and have little profit margin might face challenges sustaining themselves when they have to pay the additional cost and thus will face challenges being able to sustain the operations. The policy needs to be improved where employers and the government will share costs to reduce the burden to the employer (Rupe, 2020). The employee can also be asked to contribute to the healthcare plan in instances where there are more beneficiaries that might lead to the additional costs incurred to the employer. The Biden proposal is popular but difficult to implement because employers and the state will incur more expenses, and there will be challenges implementing the plan. Biden's proposal will increase the enrollment because more people will be eligible, and the premiums do not tax-deductible, therefore, the state will spend more resources without getting additional resources.

Conclusion

The pluses for employers in Biden's proposal its that it will help employers that seek to help employees who want to retire before they turn 65 years (Rupe, 2020). Medicare will also give the employees the confidence and more to work, knowing that they will not incur expenses to meet medical costs when they get sick on duty. The minuses for the employers are that Medicare will become more expensive for employers, especially for companies that have small profit margins. More employees will enroll the Medicare, an expense that the companies did not have.

References

Crow, D. (2020). What Would Lower the Medicare Eligibility Age Mean for Employers? | Mercer US. Mercer.us. Retrieved 2 November 2020, from
https://www.mercer.us/our-thinking/healthcare/what-would-lowering-the-medicare-eligibility-age-mean-for-employers.html.

Rupe, S. (2020). Lowering The Medicare Age: The Pluses And Minuses For Employers. InsuranceNewsNet. Retrieved 2 November 2020, from
https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/lowering-the-medicare-age-the-pluses-and-minuses-for-employers#.