I like this, but need more information.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, who has long supported single payer and was a strong proponent of the public option, likes the Medicare Buy-In:
"Extending this successful program to those between 55 and 64, a plan I proposed in July, would be the largest expansion of Medicare in 44 years and would perhaps get us on the path to a single payer model," he said. "Medicare provides health care to all Americans over 65 and has an overhead of barely 1%. In a debate that hasn’t focused enough on how to genuinely contain costs and deliver affordable health care, this is one idea I like a lot."
NY Daily News
Here is Rep. Weiner earlier this year pushing for single payer:
On Daily Kos TV:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tells Rachel Maddow that if the health care reform deal reportedly reached by the "Gang of 10" Democratic Senators includes Medicare buy-in plus expanded Medicaid eligibility, it could be superior to the public option passed by the House and currently included in the Senate bill:
Maybe there is hope. The devil is in the details, and I don't think the insurance companies will allow anything good, but Sanders and Weiner give me some needed hope.
Update I: More details from
That buy-in option would initially be made available to some uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open. For the period between 2011 and 2014, when the exchanges do open, the Medicare option will not be subsidized--people will have to pay in without federal premium assistance--and so will likely be quite expensive, the aide noted. However, after the exchanges launch, the Medicare option would be offered in the exchanges, where people could pay into it with their subsidies.
TPM