Extending Health Care Coverage — Douglas Holtz-Eakin (Fox Business)

welcome at coba 19 side-effects a bedrock of the US economy now on life support struggling through the corona virus pandemic and recession Jerry Willis is now here with the details Jerry good morning hey good morning Maria that's right the healthcare industry on life support due to the double whammy of koban 19 and the recession healthcare normally resistant to economic cycles but not this time in the first quarter of 2020 when GDP fell at a 5% annual rate two percentage

points of that were from people using fewer health services they stopped going to the doctor worse yet experts predict 27 million people will lose employer-sponsored health care coverage this year and that will mean incredible pressures on our healthcare system who will cover the new jobless and how will we pay at a time states are underfunded dr. Ezekiel Emanuel a former President Obama advisor examined health care systems in 11 countries to write his new book which country has the world's best health care and suggests emulating

single-payer systems in countries like Germany and the Netherlands he writes individuals choose their own insurer and the government pays most of the premium risk adjusted to reflect the patient's age sex and state of health but Doug holtz-eakin president of the American action forum suggests a more targeted approach such as government help in extending employer-sponsored COBRA coverage or a special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act I don't think a state sponsored solution is the answer we've seen the debate over Medicare for all for example the extreme

end point of a state-sponsored solution and one of the things you learn in in following that debate is people like their employer-sponsored insurance the debate will likely continue Maria but the stakes will get higher this fall as more people search for coverage Maria