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US42 - Standard, Basic, Universal Medical Insurance
| Propose standard, basic, universal medical insurance policies based on the Medicare model for everyone. | |
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Description
Propose standard, basic, universal medical insurance policies for everyone. These policies would be based on the Medicare model. Consumers would have the opportunity to purchase upgraded or additional coverage.
Arguments
Simplify the language. Be clear about patient responsibility. Co-pay, co-insurance, deductible, out-of-pocket are all terms for patient responsibility. One term would be more clear.
There are different percentages or limits for deductibles,co-insurance,out-of-pocket. There are different co-pays.
Individual policies are also so different. This creates a need for attention to find all the specifics of an individual policy.
There are different percentages or limits for deductibles,co-insurance,out-of-pocket. There are different co-pays.
Individual policies are also so different. This creates a need for attention to find all the specifics of an individual policy.
If you give health care to all; paid for through taxes; and remove the "for profit" component; you would save 30%+ right out of the gate. Some of the things you do need to spend money on to supply health care to someone is doctors, nurses, hospitals, drugs, medical equipment, clinics, etc. The one thing you don't need is insurance companies. They offer no service except to jack-up the costs and provide a return for their investors at patients expense. Through sheer volume, we could self insure ourselves at a much cheaper price and more efficiently.
Think about it. The only way an insurance company can make money is to collectively overcharge their customers the percentage of profit margin, over and above their expenses. The expenses include the paying of claims, but also include, executive pay and bonuses, employee pay, benefits, taxes (maybe not), Marketing and Administrative Expenses ( you even have to pay for their TV ads), utility costs, maintenance costs, and much, much, more; that are passed directly to the patient on top of already high actual health care costs.
A 2004 economic study published in The New England Journal of Medicine determined that a national single-payer healthcare system would reduce costs by more than $400 billion a year "despite the expansion of comprehensive care to all Americans." I'm sure that figure has increased since then.
I think the cartoon at the bottom of this page says it all -
http://www.healthcare-now.org/whats-single-payer/
Cheers :)
Single payer is the ideal medical coverage. No stock holder should be making a profit from another's misfortune. However, that is not what congress passed.
Counterarguments
Medicare and medicaid still contain profit. What makes health insurance expensive is the profit that does not go to care. The goal should be a National Health Care system which replaces Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans with a government managed system which pays providers (a la the Canadian system).
We need to get our health care percentage of GDP down from over 22% to the 10-15% which is common in single payer countries.
We need to get our health care percentage of GDP down from over 22% to the 10-15% which is common in single payer countries.
As this would be purely defined by government, it would be purely defined by what government wants. Arguments already stem from HHS forcing faith-based companies to cover birth control, even if they do not support it.
This arrangement places too much power in the hands of specific people, who clearly use it for political gain, as Sebelius did.
Further, there is no choice if the system is single-payer, costs will be unregulated. You can't change from a Medicare-type systemm so if they choose not to cover something, you're stuck if you need it.
Cut costs, innovate, reduce overhead, but don't create a system that's more of political gain than about providing quality health care.
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Discussion
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Alternative Health Care, Not Drug Company Health Abuse
* See http://mercola.com