Simple Healthcare Solution: 8% Medicaid Buy-In

As someone who has purchased his own health insurance on the individual health insurance market since 2007, I am still amazed at just how absurd and overly complex the individual health insurance market is in America.

So the following is one very simple way to give Americans, who purchase health insurance on the individual market, access to reliable and affordable health insurance. Just let anyone who needs to purchase health insurance on the individual market do a simple Medicaid buy-in at an 8% rate with an out-of-pocket cap. No co-pays or deductibles, just a monthly premium and an out-of-pocket cap.

Simple and easy to understand... You pay a set amount each month and year and that's it.

8% Medicaid Buy-In Individual Rate Table (Double Costs for Family Rates)

Income Premium Out-of-Pocket $16,400 $109 $1,312 $20,000 $133 $1,600 $30,000 $200 $2,400 $40,000 $267 $3,200 $50,000 $333 $4,000 $56,516* $377 $4,521

*This amount would be tied to the yearly median household income, and act as the top cap for all Americans regardless if they earn more than the median household income.

So why Medicaid instead of Medicare?

Medicaid is setup to cover everything in one simple step while Medicare is a multi-faceted platform with different moving parts. However, one item that would need to change is the reimbursement rates for Medicaid. They would need to be increased to equal those currently offered through Medicare, in order to get more providers willing to accept Medicaid patients.

So I ask all Americans... Wouldn't this be a much simpler approach, than anything else that has currently been offered up as a solution, to address the problems with the individual health insurance markets all across America?