Biden ‘Leaves Clear Some Important Details’ Concerning Proposed Government Insurance System

WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to face tough questions regarding the impact his proposed new government-run health insurance system would have on patients and consumers.

As Bloomberg reports, Biden has “not yet said how the costs and benefits of the public option would stack up to existing private insurance plans, nor how he’d ensure that existing plans would be kept in place even as a public option would change the insurance marketplace. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how he’d fulfill his promise.”

And CNN reports that Biden “leaves unclear some important details about how it would work, including how the plan would be administered and the rates at which doctors and hospitals would be paid — which plays a crucial role in determining which health care providers would accept patients enrolled in the public option.”

Meanwhile, NBC News reporter Jonathan Allen reminded viewers yesterday that “[t]he public option is essentially a back door to Medicare for all. You can say all day long if you want it’s not Medicare for all. But this is a different packaging of how to get there. In a general election, that’s a different question.”

A recent study found that government insurance systems like the one Biden proposes could force hospitals to limit the care they provide, produce significant “layoffs” and “potentially force the closure of essential hospitals.” Another study found that “[f]or hospitals, the introduction of a public plan that reimburses providers using Medicare rates would compound financial stresses they are already facing, potentially impacting access to care and provider quality.”

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