The American people have been conditioned for 60 years that someone ELSE is going to pay for their healthcare. It all started with companies offering “free” medical insurance. People got conditioned to the disconnect between paying for the insurance and receiving the healthcare. I usually point out to people that they don’t have a problem with their homeowners insurance – if they don’t like the insurance company, they change it. They haven’t had that freedom with health insurance.
One simple change that I would recommend is to make health insurance premiums tax deductable ONLY for individuals, not for corporations – the exact opposite of what we have now. For the faint-hearted, we could add in some 2-3 yr switchover provisions that encourage companies to put what they now spend in premiums into individual accounts for their employees.
When you write the check yourself, you have much more skin in the game.
