As Bob Laszewski trenchantly notes, covering everyone will not reduce costs in and of itself – at least not on a system-wide basis. Absent major changes in reimbursement and demand management, covering more people will just increase total costs.
That said, universal coverage should significantly decrease costs for private payers and their members, as well as the employers who fund most group coverage. Most significantly, a substantial portion (about eight percent, or over $1000 per family) of health insurance premiums go to cover the cost of uncompensated care. Note that this includes costs for both the uninsured and underfunded care; Medicaid is the most often cited example of inadequate compensation.
Covering everyone would not eliminate the inadequate compensation and resulting cost-shifting, but it certainly would reduce providers’ need to recoup lost revenue from treating the uninsured.
Among the beneficiaries of universal coverage, workers comp payers might see the most benefit. Not only is comp a very soft target for cost-shifting, it is also likely claimants without other health insurance receive treatment for their non-occupational conditions in the course of treatment. This is not due to laziness or incompetence or fraud, but rather because the insurer understands that the injured worker cannot return to work unless the injury and any complicating medical conditions are resolved.
What does this mean for you?
The pluses of universal coverage are not often obvious.
Jan
8
It seems to me that before universal coverage should be debated there is one basic, almost a “duh,” question that needs to be asked and answered. Here’s the question: Is health care a universal human right? If so, then universal coverage is a moral requirement, and society needs to provide it. If not, we can continue our present course of slapping tiny, poorly-designed, but costly, rooms onto the American health care house that Jack built.
Healthcare costs for families in the form of insurance premiums will actually increase because of the requirements put by government to allow everyone, even those with substantial pre-existing conditions, to be eligible for the same insurance premiums as healthy individuals and families. No underwriting of risk by insurance companies means increased premiums overall and increased systemic costs.
Uiversal coverage would be the BEST method of providing delivery of benefits to injured workers expeditiously and efficiently and would eliminate all the administrative costs and collateral issues with providers such as CMS.