A couple hours ago, Barrack Obama gave a national address on health care. It’s obvious something needs to be done. The US spends a fortune on it (1/6 of GDP or so), people go bankrupt when they get sick, we’ve got around 30 million people without health insurance and many more under-insured. Obama presented some good ideas and so did the republican response given by Charles Boustany.
After hearing both of them, here’s my suggestion – JewellCare
First lets make some assumptions:
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People want “choice” and we need to setup a system that gives them “choice”, even if it means choosing to gamble and not pay into an insurance pool in their younger years when they are healthy and feel invincible.
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We need competition among insurance companies and government regulations needs to encourage that competition, not prevent it. Regulation also needs to preserve competition. A complete “free market in health insurance won’t work.
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We need to get rid of the pre-existing condition clause that enables insurance companies to deny or discontinue coverage but insurance companies need premiums to pay for pre-existing conditions.
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Malpractice lawsuits need to be reigned in to prevent unnecessary testing procedures and ridiculous judgments.
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Individuals and small businesses need to be able to buy insurance at group rates.
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Consumers need to have a stake in their health care and their insurance coverage. The govt can offer assistance but can’t offer endless handouts.
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Consumers need incentives to lead healthy lifestyles to exercise and not smoke at minimum.
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People need to be able to keep their existing insurance if they are happy with it.
So what are some elements of the solution?
Encouraging Competition to Bring Down Insurance Premiums
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Regulations that currently prevent insurance companies from competing and entering new markets need to be repealed to encourage competition.
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Mergers and acquisitions between insurance companies need to be limited in markets with limited competition (how many is the minimum needed to ensure competition – 5? 10?)
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A public option or a pool for individuals and small businesses to buy insurance at group rates.
Insuring Unhealthy People and Those with Pre-existing Conditions That Require On-going Expensive Treatment
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We need to realize that insurance companies decline insurance and refuse treatments because it makes financial sense to do so for the insurance company because treatment is expensive and can cost far more than the premiums received.
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We can “require” that consumers buy health insurance.
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We can assume that some people will not follow a law that requires them to buy insurance.
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Enforcing and chasing down people who do not buy insurance will add expense to the system.
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We don’t want the government to add and another tax that will add bureaucracy and inefficiency.
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If someone chooses to “break the law” and not purchase insurance and needs treatment they cannot pay for out of pocket, they will need to pay all the average premium they chose not to pay or 5% of their income for every month they chose not to pay times 2.5.
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They will receive initial treatment for an emergency or trauma bust must start paying premiums as well as back premiums and penalties for future treatments or will be treated after everyone who has paid their premiums over the years.
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These back premiums cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.
Doctors Need to Focus on Treatment and Not Preventing Lawsuits
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Ambulance chasers and personal injury attorneys need to pay all legal costs if the lose a case.
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There need to be caps on malpractice settlements such that any settlements are “reasonable”.
Consumers Need Incentives to Live a Healthy Lifestyle
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People tend to do things when they have a financial incentive and incentives for healthy lifestyles need to be just that – incentives that reduce premiums for healthy lifestyles, not penalties for unhealthy lifestyles.
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Regular exercise has a host of health benefits and should be encouraged. Financial incentives should be provided for regular exercise in the form of reimbursement for actually using gym memberships or other activities that can be easily tracked and verified.
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Everyone knows the dangers of smoking. If ya don’t smoke you get a discount equal to the projected % less it will cost to treat your health conditions while you are insured.
There are a host of other things that need to be addressed in the US healthcare system that require education, people taking personal responsibility for their own health, as well as the incentives provided to health care professionals and the communication between doctors and patients.
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People need to stop eating junk and healthy food needs to be more readily available.
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Patients need to be able to communicate with doctors for more than a 15 minute office visit during which is may very difficult for a patient to express what they are feeling and difficult for the doctor to understand what the issue may be to diagnose or refer to an appropriate specialist.
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Medical professionals need to be compensated not by the number of procedures they give or authorize but by the quality of treatment they provide (if that is measurable) or on a straight salary.
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Lifestyle changes need to take priority over prescriptions for every single ailment.
Obviously health care reform is a huge issue with many considerations. Even if the government does some through with reforms, your best bet is to take control of your diet, your habits (eating, smoking, drinking, drugs), reduce your stress level, and get out and move your body.
If you’re reading this, what do you think, how can we solve this problem in a way that will provide better care, contain costs, put aside our beliefs of how things should work and instead strucuture them to synch up with human nature and the way they will work when any new plan is offered to real people.
