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Buy into the Medicare plan to fix health care

Alan Paradis Groton

Publication: The Day

Published 03/16/2010 12:00 AM
Updated 03/16/2010 02:05 AM

Much fuss has been made about Congress "creating a new entitlement program through reconciliation."

While it is true that this is not anything new (SCHIP, COBRA), even experts are uncertain about how passing a new public-option plan through the arcane Senate rules of reconciliation would play out.

Allowing anyone to buy into Medicare instead would not only answer the concerns about passing a new program through reconciliation, it would also:

• Improve the financial viability of Medicare by allowing younger - and usually healthier - clients to join on a paying basis.

• Be easy to implement very quickly with little additional bureaucracy.

It is an idea whose time has come, and Congress should pass a Medicare buy-in option in the reconciliation "sidecar" fix to the pending health care bill.

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