How the newly named Medicare Pt. E differs from "old" Medicare and Single-payer

[clear eye]

In a nutshell "Medicare Pt E" is a renaming of the House's proposed "public" option.

No one not meeting current elegibility standards for Medicare would be permitted into "old" Medicare plans. What is happening is that the already proposed "public" option is being renamed Medicare pt. E. It is not a gov't run plan, unlike the main Medicare, and it won't even include a gov't run plan to compete w/ the privately administered plans. Since there will be as many provider payers as there are private administrators of plans, it doesn't remotely resemble single-payer. It is not being subsidized by payroll taxes or by raising the income taxes of the top bracket. There is no premium cap, and no mandated payment rates to providers as Medicare has. The only subsidies will be for people earning just over what would qualify them for Medicaid, and there will be a small tax rebate for many more people, but that will likely be eaten up by inflated premiums.

The major differences from current private health insurance will be that it will be available to all outside of the workplace, it won't have pre-existing condition exclusions, and there will be some required minimum coverage in the listed plans. The downside is that it will be mandated with a tax penalty for not enrolling no matter what it ends up costing, and no matter if your kid just started an expensive college or you have any other unavoidable heavy expense that year. The captive market and lack of premium cap will lead to inevitably inflated premiums, as has happened in states like MA which mandate private insurance.

It is favored by "centrists" of both parties because there is the possibility that in the future elements of this model might more easily find their way into the Medicare offered to the elderly, degrading it, and opening it up to higher cost private plans.