Abstract
By utilizing the best ideas of the Affordable Care Act, American Healthcare Act, and Medicare-for-All, the Equal Healthcare Act (EHA) synthesizes the left-wing objections to for-profit insurance with the right-wing need for fiscal solvency. A new model, based on the mechanism of a universal healthcare voucher tied solely to payroll taxes, creates a free yet universal healthcare insurance market for all citizens. Additionally, the EHA reorganizes current payroll taxes used to finance Medicare and Medicaid so that no new taxes are necessary to fund such as program. In fact, the total healthcare voucher per citizen comes out to roughly $3500 per citizen per year. These vouchers are designed to roll over from one year to another allowing healthy individuals to accrue a measurable fund for future outlays. Additionally, the EHA sets up hereditary, tax-free Healthcare Savings Accounts allowing family members to save for their own care and pass any leftover savings to their children. To control for the perverse profit incentive that agglomerated insurance companies have enjoyed, a nonprofit model similar to Germany’s sickness funds will not only reallocate profit towards insurance endowments instead of investors or stock buybacks but also cap the administrative costs of insurance companies to ensure proper market incentives. Current Medicare enrollees, as well as those soon to enroll, will enjoy current Medicare benefits, but the programs will be administered by these nonprofit insurers. By acknowledging issues with the current for-profit market, the EHA structurally reforms the healthcare insurance market to satisfy perspectives across the aisle.
Recommended Citation
Pollard, Miles
(2022)
"Equal Healthcare Act: A Brief Review of Health Insurance Programs and how Healthcare Vouchers Ameliorates many Endemic Issues,"
Pepperdine Policy Review: Vol. 14, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/ppr/vol14/iss1/2
