I think this would be the least-bad solution. You want people incentivized to spend their money, wisely, on stuff that will keep them healthy. Not on using other people’s money to hire an ambulance to go to the ER for a boo-boo.

Ever notice how, when a tax increase don’t pass, the bureaucrat’s will cut out “High School Football” or some other item that is poplar with the voters? Or maybe they will cut fire and police — just a little extortion to get the levy passed? Well, soon you can substitute “your family’s health care” for “High School Football.”

You cannot fight something with nothing. The fact that workable health care reform has been held up since 1990, in favor of a Washington power grab by Democrats and their media wing, might be the way to go — and it has the advantage of being true.

Buy everybody in the country a traditional insurance policy with 100% coverage and a $75,000 annual deductible. Insurance carriers would bid on the policies by bidding premiums per 100 or premiums per 1000 population. Total cost should be less than what The One is proposing with his latest budget figures. Noticeably less.

With this program in place, there will be a loss limitation on all policies/programs obtained elsewhere. That will make private insurance affordable and premiums steady. Maybe even lifetime rates can come available.

The second thing I would like to see done is for employers to cease and desist from paying health insurance premiums. Instead, employers should give vouchers redeemable for health coverage. When insurers have to ask for your business instead of having it given to them, their prices will become more reasonable. Half of what General Motors is currently paying per employee would probably be among the most expensive offered.

Remember that all insurance is a form of gambling. In health insurance, you bet you get sick. They bet you don’t. You hope they win. By placing the wagers in different places and in different forms, the game becomes affordable.

And since in America, the problem is monetary (how to pay for all this wunnerful stuff), problem solved.

Any comments anyone????

Her husband is also a GP and takes insurance and has a high end practice in SF on a concierge system. Last I heard the up front payment just to get on his patient list was $21,000, with an additional $15,000 for your spouse. That doesn’t pay for any treatment. It’s a cover charge. I’m not sure whether his is annual. I know of other physicians in SF who charge $3500 per year. If you don’t need a doctor that year, then you don’t have to pay your insurance deductible, but you’ve already paid the full concierge fee and it’s gone. If you do need a doctor, he’s good, and from what I’ve heard, the level of care is very good. I prefer his wife and her much more economical plan.

We have good insurance but certain blood tests are cheaper purchased through lef dot org than if we have them done and billed to insurance. Go figure.

The current one is obviously not a perfect system, but if, like Derek/28 I’d had to wait for months to see a specialist, I would be dead now. As is, I saw the specialist the next day, the more special specialist the day after that, and was recovering from surgery on a morphine drip early the next Monday morning. A rather hellish but very interesting batch of radiation later, a handful of years of bed rest, and I’m once again a productive member of society. The tumor was two millimeters from the point of no return, so I’m lucky.

January 14 had an appointment with my GP. I’m over 50, issues with bottom end. He checked what he could, said we should get this looked at. Booked an appointment with a surgeon to do colonoscopy.

Monday May 25 had the test. Good news. Doctor was excellent, nurses capable and efficient. All went very well.

I’m lucky. What I felt was nothing serious. What if I had something serious? That 4 months probably would mean that an early detected cancer with great prognosis into a late detected with all the difficulties and reduced survival rates.

I’m what you could compare to an insured American.

If I was working and living in say, Phoenix or even a mid sized US town, how long would I have waited before the test?

Another thing. In the 90′s the governments listened to Marxist claptrap on how supply creates the problem, and all provinces cut back seriously on the training of doctors and nurses. Last time I had the privilege of needing care, the nurses were working 60-70 hours a week because of the severe shortages. I talked to the nurse yesterday, and she said they don’t or rarely work overtime now, as a result of serious concentration on training nurses. Doctor shortage has been alleviated by closing hospitals and surgery facilities.

The rapidly increasing costs of health care is a problem.

How to fix the system? The danger, not imagined or possibly the danger, but what will happen, is government will ‘solve’ the problem of the uninsured by ruining the system for the insured. They will solve the cost problem by making it more expensive for someone else.

A couple of observations. I had for a short period, dental insurance. We have always paid for necessary dental care out of pocket for our children and ourselves. Interestingly, when insured, suddenly everyone needed expensive and extensive work that we didn’t need 6 months ago.

The socialized system and the market insurance of the US has a bias or incentive that is perverse. My GP gets around $35 for a consultation. Usually to refer to a specialist, or to prescribe treatment for something. The fees are too small for a GP to maintain a practice, pay for college debts, etc. No sane person goes into general practice. That $35 is the end result of on his estimate $250 going into the system, the balance eaten up by collection, overhead, processing, etc. I would be farther ahead to pay the guy $200. But single payer or insurance systems are extraordinarily expensive for small transactions. So get out of them.

This has other detrimental effects. Minor injuries, tests or treatments can be done by a well equipped doctor. But they have to be able to afford to be well equipped, pay a nurse, etc. The system encourages not doing anything, passing them on. Emergency wards, probably the most expensive per foot medical facilities, are full of minor ailments that need care but not a fully equipped facility. But no one can afford to set up such facility, because no one will pay for it.

And it makes no sense for an insurance company to pay for maintenance. Catastrophic illness, chronic illness, whatever, things beyond the means of almost anyone to pay for, needs insurance. But common maintenance items? If we paid for them, a supplier market would exist that would cost what people could afford to pay.

Derek

1. Spend trillions
2. ?
3. Universal and cheaper healthcare!

Is that how this system will be set up? Some will have private insurance through employers but for those without that option a free government insurance? Won’t this turn out the same way? Who is going to pay $200 a month or more when they can get it for free? Or do I misunderstand the process? Can someone clear this up for me?

F #17: Glad you liked it. I must confess that it is not entirely original, but I added my own adjectives. Some years ago I heard someone say that on the radio, but, believe it or not he was advocating, National Health Care, saying that at present we had to realize that the post office and motor vehicle bureau were likely examples of the service we would get, but that we had to fix that. Sure we can fix that, Real Soon Now.

Whiskey#18: Unfortunately, I have to admit that I tend to think the same thing. On more than one occasion I have had to go in search of a place to get an FAA Medical Exam. I invariably ended up talking to various people all over the place, and most of them were either female or black or both and at least one had some difficulty with the English language. And not one could answer my question or seemingly even comprehend it. I came to realize each time that I had talked to a whole bunch of people who were paid with healthcare dollars but in fact were not involved in it in any useful way. In one case I even gave up calling around and went to the actual office (at Reagan National Airport) where I had the last exam to make the appointment (Note: going to a place right next to an airline boarding gate and taking off your clothes ranks high on my list of Weird Experiences).

Richard #20: In Canada the head of the Canadian version of the AMA opened his own privately funded pay-as-you-go, clinic. By the way, that is illegal in Canada. He said “We will see.” I don’t think he went to jail.