> On Feb 25, 2009, at 12:32 PM, Steven L. Robinson wrote:
>
>> So will it be the Massachusetts plan writ large? SR
>
> Sorta looking that way, isn't it?
Why wouldn't it be possible to pass a law allowing individual states to opt into Medicare as a universal program? The state would impose the necessary extra payroll taxes and pass them along to the feds. Then every resident would just be automatically signed up and issued a Medicare card. But it would be left up to each state to decide. So you could have the more liberal states opt in and demonstrate that a single payer works fine, making everybody else jealous.
SA