Trends in Healthcare Services

You are a member of a presidential commission appointed to consider a mandatory national health insurance plan and the question of how to fund the plan is being discussed.

Specifically, three separate options are being considered to generate an average of $4,000 per worker-a flat mandatory premium, a doubling of the current 7.65% payroll tax that comes out of people's pay to cover social security and Medicare, and a 7% increase in income tax.

Think about funding plans from the perspective of three workers:

One who makes $25,000 per year

One who makes the same in salary but also has $1,000 in investment income

One who makes $85,000 per year, including $10,000 in investment income

Based on the above scenario, answer the following questions:

Which of the three funding measures, considering the relative financial contributions it imposes on individuals such as these, would you support and why?

How has the emergence of different types of health insurance plans-FFS, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and capitation-affected the trends in healthcare services today?

What economic and societal factors affect the demand and pricing of healthcare services in today's health insurance market?