Trump can tie-in sane government medical protection to a capitalist medical delivery system. It'll blow democrat delusional plans out of the water - - offering voters a realistic alternative.
AND it's totally competitive with the 'pie in the sky' insanity democrats are pushing...
The incentives are healthy, helpful and workable - - lower prices, competitive medical markets, and access based on capitalitsm's 'my money's as green as yours' - not a 'who do you know' or 'are you a connected elite' etc.
Start small - Trump offers $600 per year, per citizen, for heath care. Citizen's make the choice how they want to spend their medical dollars...
The $600 can be used with ANY 'medicare approved provider' (this saves time and expense and keeps out crystal ball readers, quacks, and scammers) And since it's already set up system - it's cheaper. (Or an agreement with Amazon can be worked out for payment and approvals... probably cheaper in the long run)
A private citizen can choose to spend their $600 on 15 minutes with an emergency room doctor - OR getting their teeth cleaned, new glasses, an annual check up at Walmart, and money left over for a prescription or two.
Thank YOU Walmart...
Tucker and Jesse Watters will see the value... they can help with this one... it's our best chance to stop the commie insanity of socialists taking over health care, it'll drive down prices while allowing the medical profession to go modern (finally), and it has positive incentives. People can also use THEIR $600 to pay deductibles on their company health insurance plan. Everyone wins... and it STOPS commieCare...
Good post!
It is a good market based solution to what may be (at least according to some pundits) the #1 problem - the lack of ‘preventive care’. So, here is the path to resolve that. Cheap medical exams, blood tests, x-rays and other examinations.
Even Dentistry plays a part, as dentists often are the first to find symptoms of various diseases including tonsillitis, strep throat, mouth lesions, oral cancer etc.
Seems like this is a sort of upgrade to the “free clinic” concept - community based preventive care and exams at a low cost. And it is smart for a company like WalMart to roll it out - they have the square footage to offer it, they are accessible, they serve many rural communities, and as a competitive move against Amazon they have another reason to bring people into their stores one or two more times a year.
It’s good capitalism, a market based solution to problems with medical accessibility. Increasing supply of medical care is the way to reduce the cost of medical care. Not top down dictates.
As an aside, a doctor on the UK’s NHS makes about 1/2 to 1/3 what a doctor in a major US City makes. I don’t think doctors are going to be in favor of single payer.
The problem is that’s a fix for the high volume, low cost, side of health care, which entails government having to dig up all that money so it can be sent back. The $600 and below part of health care is actually within the resources of most people.
The real politically sellable issue that’s a risk shared by all, is the expense associated with serious illness or injury. Few average citizens have the ability to handle that major heart attack, kidney failure, traumatic brain injury, by tapping the bank account. Those are all areas where we’re at risk of running out of personal resources far before the disease or injury has run its course. Pretty much every American is at risk of financial destruction in those areas. That’s where there’s arguably a role for wide-spread taxpayer involvement. In fact, many states have had disability coverage for years intended to provide some relief to those medically unable to work.
I’ve long advocated state funded major medical coverage with a high deductible that comes to the aid of those seriously in trouble. It addresses a risk that’s common to all of us, is relatively easy to administer, and can be funded by a payroll tax or an income tax override. Limiting it to every individual who files, or appears as a dependent, on a tax return also acts as an incentive for tax dodgers to file. They actually get something back for paying their taxes. It also has a strong positive impact on the high-risk pools, drives down the cost of individual insurance, and reduces the degree of government supplementation of uncollectable ER costs, since a large percentage of high cost patients will have coverage.
Coverage for those who view medical insurance as a pre-paid medical program, including those in the “bottom $600” group you’re seeking to serve can be provided by current private and employer plans, with some adjustments to allow considerably more design flexibility. The cost of those plans will be a lot lower because they’re not assuming the biggest risks.
In California about a decade and a half ago, we actually got a bill in the hopper for a program of this type. The Democrats, at the same time, proposed “single payer” again. When the hearings came, they got a full day extravaganza, we got 15 minutes. Single Payer passed, but got vetoed, and we saw a proposal that would have provided real financial protection to California’s working class replaced by Obamacare, a program to seize the wealth from California’s working class and hand it over to Obama’s non-productive constituency.