Discouraging Employer-Provided Postretirement Insurance. Since the employer buy-in provision would penalize companies with retiree health insurance plans, the proposal would discourage companies from providing such benefits in the future. Employers would help their retirees qualify for Medicare instead. Substituting Public for Private Health Insurance. The increase in the number of children covered by Medicaid was offset by a decrease in the number of those with private insurance, with very little change in the overall percent uninsured.
Similar outcomes are likely for near-retirees.
Expanding a Bankrupt System. Medicare is already on a collision course with reality. In the long run, Medicare deficits will keep rising for as far as the eye can see. Projections about the future of the program contained in the annual reports of the Medicare trustees are not encouraging. Based on pessimistic assumptions, the future looks even bleaker.