Question

reimbursement varies significantly by payer( government, private pay, self-pay..) and influences the net operating income of an entity. What are the potential economic consequences to the health care systems and country if a “Medicare for All” system is adopted and all services are reimbursed at the Medicare rate?

Answer 1

Full coverage. While seeking access to health care services, all members of the eligible population would be insured or become insured.6 Coverage would also be continuous: people would not lose coverage or need to change coverage if their jobs, family status, income, state of residence or age change.
Equity. All residents of the US would be equally covered. This would go a very long way towards addressing disparities in racial / ethnic and income-related coverage and access to care.

Service Access. With broad benefits at the point of service and no out - of-pocket costs, access to care would increase, especially for those with low or modest incomes. Additionally, even many higher-income people should have increased access to some services by including benefits such as long-term services and supports, dentistry, and vision. Improved access would in turn tend to improve safety. See below for a caveat on possible demand increases relative to the health care providers ' supply.

Elimination of administrative duties of the company and state government, and likely cost related to providing health benefits. With a single-payer plan, the institutional mechanisms associated under offering health insurance coverage could be eliminated by employers and state governments resulting in savings. We would also remove direct payments to their staff and residents for offering health insurance coverage.

Possible unintended effects of a single national provisioner payment system. Cuts in hospital revenues and physician income could have large and widespread consequences, and reductions in payments could have implications for all health sectors. A single-payer system presumes drastic changes compared with current levels of private insurance. This would result in significant distributional effects across types of providers and geographic locations. When such decisions are made for a broad system of providers, the effect of setting provider payments at inappropriate levels is greater than when adjustments are made in one program or by one private insurer

Developing and managing a sizeable new government entity. While the new program could base its administrative structure on current public programs such as Medicare, a nationwide system would require large capacity increases, and differences between the programs would require the development of a substantial new infrastructure and operating systems. In order to try to set prices for health care services and products (e.g. prescription drugs, medical devices) appropriately, such an entity should include a system of monitoring and evaluation that could account for the value and incremental health benefits, both at introduction and over time.