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We study the effect of Medicare on financial strain, measured by annual changes in medical debt in collections, using credit bureau data. We exploit the program’s eligibility age at 65 and ...

We study the efficiency and distributional effects of financing universal health-insurance coverage, using a computational general equilibrium model of the United States for 1991, with considerable disaggregation among families. Aggregate efficiency losses (primarily from labor supply distortions) range from 0.2 percent to nearly 1 percent of net output. Losses are considerably smaller for a "mandate-with-tax-credit" plan than for full tax finance. All plans redistribute in favor of the poor. The mandate with credit is much better for the highest income groups, but worse for the lower-middle class. The elderly lose in all plans we consider.