Therefore, my thought is simply this:  why not extend Medicare coverage to those who are working and are paying for the program anyway?

I figure that the current payroll deduction is 1.44%.  If my employer matches this (very likely), then the setoff is 2.88%, or $10.14 per week to feed into the Medicare system.  This supports those who have retired or who cannot work due to disability, and I have no problem with supporting them, since the first group has already paid their dues and there is a societal obligation to help out with the second group.  I DO have a huge problem with paying Medicare premiums for those who qualify for the program through welfare because they WILL NOT work, and those people exist.  If I'm going to pay for their health care, I want it for myself and all other working people as well.

Therefore, I propose that the Federal Government (or the separate states as a viable option) give all persons who draw a paycheck and have Medicare premiums deducted the option to buy into Medicare.  To do so, the offset percentage would be doubled to 2.88%, and the worker would receive a Medicare card, thereby signifying coverage through that plan.  The worker does not have to buy in to this coverage if his/her employment offers a better coverage plan, but the choice is there.  This would cover only the worker; if a family plan is wanted, then the offset percentage would be doubled again, to 5.76%, and the entire family would then be covered.

In my personal example, I pay $5.07 a week for Medicare, but I don't get to use the program.  If I were to opt in for myself only, I would pay $10.14 a week, and I would have Medicare coverage.  If I wanted coverage for my wife and two sons, I would then be paying $20.28 cents a week, and my entire family would have health insurance.  That is a bearable price for me, and I believe it would be so for a vast majority of workers who currently do not have any kind of health coverage.

The benefits are immediately apparent.  The extra monies from the opt-in concept would be used to operate the Medicare system and allow for the increased use of that system, therefore making this idea revenue-neutral (at worst, it's a user fee, no outside entity is being further taxed to make this concept work).  The idea benefits those who are paying for the Medicare system anyway, and thereby obviates the basic inequity of wealth re-distribution (those who have must pay for those who have not).  This plan, if accepted by working people, would immediately cover a great many of the estimated 47 million uninsured people in the United States.  Many of those uninsured do indeed work, but at low-paying jobs where they cannot afford health insurance plans, or in small business where the entrepreneur cannot afford to offer the employees a healthcare plan.

I have discussed this idea with others, and the most frequent complaint is that it would create longer waiting times at emergency rooms and doctors' offices.  Very likely this is the case, but any form of universal health coverage would do the same, and I believe universal coverage is coming to this nation.  If such is indeed the case, I see no reason that working people should pay extra for an outside plan when they're already paying for Medicare.

I will be forwarding this part of my blog to my separate representatives and senators, both on the state and national level; interested readers are welcome to do the same.