A WAY TO ACHIEVE NATIONAL-HEALTH INSURANCE IN THE UNITED-STATES - THEMEDICARE EXPANSION PROPOSAL

The current crisis in the health care system in the United States, inc luding constantly escalating costs and ever more limited access, calls for fundamental reform. Current reform proposals, including managed c ompetition, would not solve the basic problems of cost and access as t hey continue to rely on employer-provided health insurance, which is t he source of these problems. Rather, what is needed is radical reform, replacing current coverage by a system of national health insurance. The Medicare expansion plan represents a simple and workable way to ob tain such a system, via a phased change in the age of eligibility for the Medicare program. It would start by enrolling children up to age 5 and pregnant women and then expand coverage by adding 5 more years of age for eligibility in both the younger and the older population each year until, eventually, by the year 2000 everyone would be enrolled. Medicare expansion offers a viable alternative to the current system o f employer-provided health insurance, with a single payer/single colle ctor system for basic cam and with reliance on increased Social Securi ty taxes for funding. The private health insurance industry would have a role as providers of supplemental coverage and as subcontractors fo r the expanded Medicare program.