ST. PAUL, MN - OCTOBER 30: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden holds up his face covering as ... [+]
Support for Joe Biden’s healthcare reform proposals that include expanding Medicare eligibility to those as young as 60 along with a public option alongside private plans offered under the Affordable Care Act are gaining momentum in healthcare surveys before Tuesday’s election.
The former vice president in April announced his proposal to allow Americans between the ages of 60 and 64 the option of buying into Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly. The proposal would be less costly than earlier versions proposed by Democrats in the U.S. Senate over the years to lower Medicare eligibility to as young as 55 or even 50.
Should Biden defeat Donald Trump’s effort to win re-election to the White House and Democrats take control of Congress, the proposal to allow Americans between the ages of 60 and 64 the option of buying into Medicare has a good chance to be implemented. And headed into this week’s election, there’s a lot of support from the public.
Take a survey last week by the large health insurance exchange eHealth of more than 2,100 Medicare beneficiaries who purchased Medicare insurance plans through the company.
“A majority of Medicare beneficiaries support early buy-in to Medicare,” eHealth said in an accompanying analysis to its survey results, citing the 60% of survey respondents who say “adults age 60 to 64 should be able to buy in to Medicare coverage earlier than the standard eligibility age of 65.” Just 16% do not favor allowing an early buy-in to Medicare, according to eHealth, while 24% in its analysis were undecided.
The eHealth analysis is the latest to show support for expanding Medicare to younger Americans.
Biden’s Medicare proposal is part of his campaign’s pledge to build on the Affordable Care Act signed into law 10 years ago by President Barack Obama. Trump, however, has been working to uproot the ACA as well as its subsidized individual coverage known as Obamacare and also opposes expanded Medicaid. And the Justice Department under Trump appointees have been working with Republican attorneys general to repeal the ACA.
Part of Biden’s healthcare proposal includes a public option that would be a government health plan that would be sold alongside commercial plans already available on the ACA’s public exchanges.
The Physicians Foundation, a national nonprofit that supports practicing doctors, last week released a survey of more than 1,200 physicians indicating they were open to a public option. The survey was conducted by the physician staffing firm Merritt Hawkins, a unit of AMN Healthcare.
“When asked to rank their preferences for the future direction of the U.S. health care system, physicians ranked a two-tiered system featuring a single payer option plus private pay as the best direction,” the Physicians Foundation and Merritt Hawkins said of the 67% of doctors who see a two-tiered system of public and private options as the “next best direction” for the U.S. healthcare system.
Doctors do not, however, favor a government-run, Medicare for All approach that Republicans have long bashed that is favored by more progressive Democrats and could emerge as an issue next year.
“As part of the same question, physicians overwhelmingly ranked a government funded and administered single payer/Medicare for All system lowest among four potential options,” the Physicians Foundation said.
