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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 28,180
Legend
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Legend
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 28,180 |
Quote:
I believe in trying the stuff that doesn't cost trillions first. Open state borders to competition. Eliminate the ability of insurance companies to rate up or disallow coverage of a pre-existing condition. Have a modest and sensible tort reform package brought forward. Uniform paperwork for all insurance should have been done decades ago ......
Open State Borders - should lower costs significantly. It will create massive pools for a single plan to draw from. It creates the economy of scale that the industry requires
Eliminate disallowment of pre-existing - will increase rates. Flat out, guaranteed.
Tort reform - should lower rates modestly, but it should still be done.
Uniform paperwork/standardized administration - short term increase as companies cover the costs of changing their infrastructure and retraining people, but it should result in a significant long term decrease in operational costs. Plus, it will create a market for universal training on those forms. If you work on them in one state, you can go anywhere in the union and get the same job. Additionally, the companies will be able to lower what they pay for those jobs as the pool of available people increases. Standards are always a positive.
One other thing that I'd like to see that the Gov't could sink it's teeth into - a Mandatory Plan specification. Simply a Specification for a bottom level plan that EVERY insurance carrier MUST offer as a condition of doing business in the U.S.
It should be INSURANCE, not COVERAGE. It should be like State Minimum car insurance. ... dirt cheap and covers the bare necessities.
It will help to greatly reduce bankruptcies due to illness, it will also give emergency coverage to many, many, many of the people that currently don't have coverage because it will be dirt cheap.
I would even support a nationwide small business mandate that requires a business with 3 or more employees to offer at least this plan to its employees. It will be cheap because every carrier will offer the exact same thing, so they will make their money on economy of scale, not margins.
As I see it, the biggest problem is the difference in these two words - Insurance and Coverage; and the problem is that this Gov't is talking about giving Coverage. We've got Champagne tastes on a Beer budget.
With Health Insurance, you would not expect to have every office visit paid for. You would expect to be covered in the even of emergency, however.
With Coverage, people are expecting the whole shebang on a silver platter.... and THAT is why costs are through the roof constantly.
Single coverage is significantly cheaper than Family coverage... why? Aside from the part where it covers more people, it is because Single doesn't cover children. Children get LOTS and LOTS of doctor's visits.... particularly with new parents that freak out over every cough, sniffle and fever. That is very, very , very expensive..... but folks don't care because they just pay the co-pay and move on. The insurance company eats that cost and it is absorbed the following year in the form of an increase to the Family Plan rates. So, medical expenses and doctor's fees move generally with the rate of inflation, but coverage rates will always outstrip those because it has to not only adjust for its own inflation (increase cost of doing business, pay raises, etc), but it has to account for the inflation in other areas as well.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 30,825
Legend
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Legend
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 30,825 |
Good ideas - but you'll never be a senator or representative - didn't take you 2700+ pages to spell it out.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 14,248
Legend
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Legend
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 14,248 |
He didn't give away enough free money either.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 294
2nd String
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2nd String
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 294 |
And I don't one thing about a bridge or library with his name on it. Other than that, it sound like a good start. 
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Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Procedural maneuver may decide
healthcare legislation
