My Alternative Healthcare Plan
Posted: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com
Congress has recently passed a comprehensive healthcare plan for America in an effort to guarantee health coverage to most of its citizens. While it's nowhere near the disaster that many alarmists on the right would have us think, it relies too heavily on government control and counterproductive tax increases. In addition, it is too massive and puts more pressure on the already overburdened Medicare and Medicaid rolls.
Here are some of the highlights of my proposed plan:
1) All U.S. citizens would allowed to select from all the group insurance policies that government workers currently have to choose from. The major advantage of playing by group insurance rules is that no one could be singled out for exclusion from coverage or dropped when they get sick.
2) Insurance companies offering these group policies would be incentivized to do so, i.e., they would be exempt from all federal taxes as long as they participated and remained in good standing. However, too many violations of the rules, such as treating people unfairly, would result in all or part of their federal taxes being reinstated. All citizen complaints would be thoroughly investigated.
3) All U.S. citizens would be automatically eligible for these group insurance policies and could not be turned down as long as they maintained their eligibility. However, it could be forfeited. Those who do not buy into this insurance within a year after its implementation, a year after gaining U.S/ Citizenship, or by their 26th birthday (whichever comes later) would lose eligibility for life and could then legally be dropped, excluded, etc. by the insurance companies. Young people would have the option of remaining on their parents' policy until age 25, thus giving them a year from that time to purchase one on their own.
4) Most of the poor (including those who are at, just above, or just below the poverty level) would be given money by the government to pay all or part of their premiums and subsequently taken off the Medicaid rolls. Only the poorest of the poor, along with those who reside in nursing homes, would remain on Medicaid.
Now, you might ask, how would all of this be paid for? Like President Obama's plan, I would want this plan to be revenue-neutral. Therefore, its costs would be offset in the following ways:
1) A reduction in the Medicaid rolls. Medicaid is an extremely costly program, so this should produce quite a bit of savings.
2) A 10% federal surcharge on all state and local fines. Some might argue that this would be a regressive tax. However, I say it ain't necessarily so. Show me the rule of the universe that says the poor are forced to break the law more often than the wealthy. Hey, if you can't do the fine, don't do the crime.
3) A 35% tax (before lawyers' fees) on pain-and-suffering and punitive portions of medical malpractice lawsuit awards. This would not include the actual damages rewarded as a result of such a suit, which would remain tax-free.
4) A 10% federal excise tax on all ads (print, radio, and TV) purchased by lawyers who specialize in medical malpractice cases. These guys increase medical costs, so they'll have to pay the price for it.
5) A 10% federal excise tax on non-medically-necessary procedures and medications (ex., vanity cosmetic surgery and ED products such as Viagra).
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Good plan Terry. HC is complicated. Look at my recent article about the Swedish HC system.E., thanks for taking the time to read my plan.
I curious to see what this thing will look like by the middle of summer.Linda, thanks for reading and commenting. I'm sure you are referring to the real healthcare bill.
Good plan - why can't they think up something like this in congress.... you'd suspect that maybe one person could have his "thinker" turned on there?Hey Marijo, that's the problem. Nobody up there thinks anymore!Sad but true - I was about to say that myself...VOTE for sure in next election
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