PAYING TRILLIONS FOR COVERAGE COULD BE PAINFUL

By Nathaniel Luce

Publication: THE TENNESSEAN

Covering the estimated 46 million people nationwide without medical insurance won’t come cheap. One recent analysis puts the cost at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. LARRY VAN HORN, who runs the health-care MBA programs at Vanderbilt University, said taxing all health-care benefits would save the government about $250 billion a year. “Just as importantly, it will result in changes to the design of health plans and reduction in demand for health-care services,” he said. “At the end of the day, we can’t afford what we’re consuming now, so we need to consume less.”