Avik Roy Explains the Medicaid Free-Market System Concept

Avik Roy, senior fellow, Manhattan Institute, suggests that in order to improve the quality of care for the poor, one must examine the holes in the Medicaid program. Mr Roy says that first and foremost, Medicaid beneficiaries do not have access to both primary and specialty physicians to the extent that they should in order for them to receive adequate care.

According to Mr Roy, replacing today’s Medicaid program with an exchange-based coverage plan may be the easiest way to expand access for this population. While there will be co-pays and deductibles through exchange-based coverage, some of it can be “mitigated through cost-sharing subsidies.”

“At the end of the day, you’re offering the Medicaid population a modern 21st-century insurance benefit of the kind that a lot of other people are accustomed to that works very well for hundreds of millions of Americans,” he says. “Through that, you can actually get them not only into the mainstream of the healthcare system with access to the physicians when they need them, but also make sure that as their income changes or goes up and down over time, they can keep the plan that they’re on.”