What does it mean to link a public option under health care reform to Medicare?
In short, it means that the private sector will be paying more; it is that simple. Look at it this way, even now under Medicare the payments are well below the private sector and even below the cost for some services. The White House has announced new deals with the pharmacy industry and with hospitals to cut their costs to the federal government. One has to ask how does that save money or free up money to add new entitlements. The math is simple, if the money reduces the federal expense there is more federal money to spend and the unintended consequences (and I use the term loosely) is that costs go up for everyone else. Think of it as a stealth tax on everyone who has health insurance in the US. To help pay for expanded coverage for some Americans all other Americans with health insurance will pay even more if further cuts are made to the payments made by Medicare. Most, but not all of this burden will be on employers making their ability to remain competitive that much more difficul
