Joe Biden’s New Health Plan Isn’t Just Bad — It’s Deadly
Joe Biden released a new health care plan today. It's garbage — and by stopping short of universal coverage, it could end up killing 125,000 people over ten years through uninsurance.
Joe Biden gives a speech on his foreign policy plan on July 11, 2019 in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
Joe Biden released a health plan today. Its most significant elements are: 1) the creation of a public option, 2) the increase of subsidies for those buying plans on the exchanges, especially for families with incomes above 400 percent of the poverty line, and 3) the option for individuals in non-Medicaid-expansion states to enroll in the public option for free. Biden claims that the resulting system will insure 97 percent of Americans, meaning 3 percent will still be uninsured.
There is much to quibble with in Biden’s plan.
If individuals in non-Medicaid-expansion states can enroll in the public option for free, then won’t every state repeal their Medicaid expansion to save state money? I suppose that’s fine depending on how good the public option is, but is that really the intended goal?
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