An Alternate Plan
With the democratic and Obama healthcare plan now upwards of 1.6 Trillion dollars, more and more people are declining to jump on board. After all, the estimates say that with the current plan, it will still leave nearly 2/3 of the uninsured without insurance.
In a recent ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation survey they found that 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care. That translates to 250 million people who are happy with their plans.
Why don’t we consider some other proposals?
1. Reduce the administrative hassles to physicians and other healthcare providers by mandating a single payment form with all of the fields and codes standardized. One form would be sent to all insurers with the same fields utilized by everyone. This would save millions of dollars and simplify the process
2. Mandate every Insurance company who wants to provide insurance to have a minimum policy that covers all of the recommended screening tests at all ages, at least 2-3 sick visits a year and provide for some catastrophic coinsurance coverage for the unexpected.
3. Establish and take bids for a private company to screen for eligibility for patients who cannot afford insurance and the government would pay the company and then allow the patient into subsidized insurance program paid for by the government and tax dollars.
4. For those who qualify, the government would pay up to $5000/year for a policy for these individuals/families. If the government paid $5000 for all 40 million currently reported to be without insurance (which is debatable), we would only have a $220 billion dollar cost compared to the 1.6 trillion. (I think this amount is way more than it would actually cost and could be provided at 3-4000 dollars per year) Patients could choose which company they wanted to get the insurance through and it would provide insurers with capital to cover their costs. Competition would thrive, prices would be lowered because there would be no uninsured and the free market would bring quality and costs in line.
5. Eliminate the state lines for providing insurance and eliminate preexisting clauses.
6. Charge the patients, even those that are subsidized, for high risk behaviors and lifestyles that are known risks. (ie. Smoking and morbid obesity)
7. Insurance companies can offer a range of other health care coverage options above those minimal standards but each would come at a cost to patients and they could choose how much coverage they desired but everyone would have the minimum provided by the government, their companies, or personally.
As a benefit, some companies may choose to offer more than the minimum to the employees and some may offer more at a reduced cost to their employees. If an employee left a company, their minimum insurance would continue as every insurance provider is offering the same benefits. The additional coverage may or may not be lost based on the differing companies.
The government has never run anything more efficiently than the private sector and they should not be involved in this now.
If we allow the free market to work without restrictions and government intervention, we can continue to provide the best healthcare in the world and we can provide coverage to everyone at a much lower cost than the current proposals.
Individuals typically will spend their own money more wisely than the government.
Even stating this, some people may choose to go without insurance and should be allowed to do so. But when they do access the healthcare system, they should then be penalized financially for that decision by having a surcharge to the treatments they are purchasing. This would incentivize them to have coverage which lowers everyone’s cost.
Let the free-market and personal choice work.
In a recent ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation survey they found that 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care. That translates to 250 million people who are happy with their plans.
Why don’t we consider some other proposals?
1. Reduce the administrative hassles to physicians and other healthcare providers by mandating a single payment form with all of the fields and codes standardized. One form would be sent to all insurers with the same fields utilized by everyone. This would save millions of dollars and simplify the process
2. Mandate every Insurance company who wants to provide insurance to have a minimum policy that covers all of the recommended screening tests at all ages, at least 2-3 sick visits a year and provide for some catastrophic coinsurance coverage for the unexpected.
3. Establish and take bids for a private company to screen for eligibility for patients who cannot afford insurance and the government would pay the company and then allow the patient into subsidized insurance program paid for by the government and tax dollars.
4. For those who qualify, the government would pay up to $5000/year for a policy for these individuals/families. If the government paid $5000 for all 40 million currently reported to be without insurance (which is debatable), we would only have a $220 billion dollar cost compared to the 1.6 trillion. (I think this amount is way more than it would actually cost and could be provided at 3-4000 dollars per year) Patients could choose which company they wanted to get the insurance through and it would provide insurers with capital to cover their costs. Competition would thrive, prices would be lowered because there would be no uninsured and the free market would bring quality and costs in line.
5. Eliminate the state lines for providing insurance and eliminate preexisting clauses.
6. Charge the patients, even those that are subsidized, for high risk behaviors and lifestyles that are known risks. (ie. Smoking and morbid obesity)
7. Insurance companies can offer a range of other health care coverage options above those minimal standards but each would come at a cost to patients and they could choose how much coverage they desired but everyone would have the minimum provided by the government, their companies, or personally.
As a benefit, some companies may choose to offer more than the minimum to the employees and some may offer more at a reduced cost to their employees. If an employee left a company, their minimum insurance would continue as every insurance provider is offering the same benefits. The additional coverage may or may not be lost based on the differing companies.
The government has never run anything more efficiently than the private sector and they should not be involved in this now.
If we allow the free market to work without restrictions and government intervention, we can continue to provide the best healthcare in the world and we can provide coverage to everyone at a much lower cost than the current proposals.
Individuals typically will spend their own money more wisely than the government.
Even stating this, some people may choose to go without insurance and should be allowed to do so. But when they do access the healthcare system, they should then be penalized financially for that decision by having a surcharge to the treatments they are purchasing. This would incentivize them to have coverage which lowers everyone’s cost.
Let the free-market and personal choice work.
Labels: healthcare
posted by Anonymous at 5:31 AM
3 Comments:
The free market cannot work until you remove the burden of health insurance from the employers. Give the actual consumer the ability to choose what plans meet their needs and, should they become dissatisfied with one company, the right to go elsewhere for coverage. Just as one may expect to pay higher auto insurance premiums for 16 year old drivers, one would expect to pay higher premiums for unhealthy lifestyles....including hunting with guns.
You propose several areas for government intervention and then decry government involvement. Funny.
HB is pointing out that there are ways government can be involved but much less intrusive and with much less cost.
The Obama administration and spending is killing America.
He continues to break campaign promises and he continues to follow many of Bush's security policies while passing some of them at night and on friday as he did last week.
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