Innovative Strategies and Insurance Consequences for Implementing Universal Health Insurance in the United States.

Abstract

Universal Health Insurance does not exist in the United States for two reasons: (1) there is a general unwillingness to dismantle the historically grown framework of the world's most complex mix of public and private sector health coverage and (2) mere cost considerations. The first concern can be abated by establishing a Universal Health Insurance system which retains many or most of the historically grown infrastructure. Cost containment of such a reform is addressed herein in that the two proposed pathways comprise either (1) a leveled solution through Medicare-expansion for the uninsured only or (2) a more complex solution through a national, 2-tier healthcare system for all Americans. Both pathways are based on solid financing without major tax increases by using existing and/or yet untapped funding sources. The insurance consequences for both options are assessable. They are minor for the Medicare-expansion and more wide-ranging, yet also achievable, for a national, 2-tier healthcare system. Universal Health Insurance must no longer be an illusion that continues to haunt our society in the 21st century.