Posted by John Romano in Opinion, Politics on February 5, 2010
Below is a health care reform framework, found in the comments section of a lefty blog, that lays out a decent basis for real health care reform. I suspect that, if the Democrats’ real goal in regard to health care reform wasn’t more government control over the lives of American citizens, the following would be a great starting point with Republicans and the American people alike.
Blog poster Guitanguran’s comment:
There are a lot of posters here asking for solutions since it’s pretty evident government is not gonna fix things.
1.) Take companies out of the health insurance buying biz. Have them to add the $s they ordinarily pay to insurance companies to individual salaries. No net increase in employee cost to the company.
2.) Make buying health insurance a tax break for individuals as an incentive to use the extra $s the company is paying them.
3.) The most effective way to lower per person cost of insurance is to widen the pool of participants. So, allow companies to go for more customers across state lines.
4.) With interstate competition for customers, prices will go down.
5.) Structure health insurance like homeowners. You don’t insure your house with a co-pay to replace a leaky faucet. You pay that out of pocket.
6.) Structure the tax code to allow doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharma, and everybody else to deduct 10% for ‘pro bono’ services for those that can’t afford them.
7.) When all else fails, do the right thing for your neighbors.
Good ideas, or at least valid ideas, that don’t rely on union payoffs or “corn husker kickbacks” are available if Congress and the President were inclined to look for them.