In a move as bold as The Babe pointing to the left field fence to call the shot on his next home run, Dr. Zeke Emanuel brother of Rahm and a leading expert on the American healthcare system along with Dr. Jeffrey Liebman, has called his own shot by predicting the extinction of the American private health insurancemodel by the year 2020.
As it happens, the first three elements are exactly themodel of the ACA. The law includes insurance exchanges, a requirement that private insurers make coverage available to everyone regardless of health status, and the obligation that everyone have at least basic coverage.
But these same reformers, who dislike privateinsurance, are missing the fact that they just endowed these companies with a steady and profitable business model that will survive in perpetuity.
More centrist Democrats share the goal of universal coverage, but have gravitated toward a regulate-mandate-subsidize model because it has a lower explicit fiscal cost and keeps much of theinsurance market in private hands.