Here's How to Solve the Healthcare Crisis

Liberals keep saying, “If Obamacare is so terrible, what is your solution.” Conservatives keep saying, “If the GOP replacement is so bad, what is your solution.”

So, here’s the answer from a common sense, small businessman and S.O.B. (son of a butcher). Why does healthcare have to be so complicated? Why is Obamacare 2,000 pages long, with billions in spending and nonstop regulations?

How about repealing and replacing Obamacare with one page, two tiers and seven simple points:

#1) Keep government OUT of it. Don't let government run anything. New York City’s subway system is failing this summer. Everything is broken. Subway cars are being held together with staples and bubble gum. Commuters are waiting for hours in sweltering heat. It’s pure misery. The MTA Chairman’s response? “Commuters should leave for work earlier.”

This is government. Government does not work. Government can’t make the subways run on time. Or run at all. Government can’t run the VA. They put vets on waiting lists to die. Government can’t run Amtrak. Government can’t win the war on drugs. Government fails at whatever it does- and it fails expensively.

If anyone should run it, give the healthcare system to Amazon or Google or Walmart! But never government.

A) Everyone pays up to the first $10,000 in healthcare bills themselves.

They do it with a $10,000 Health Savings account- which is 100% tax deductible.

B) For all the costs over $10,000, everyone must buy a cheap, no-frills, bare-bones, catastrophic health insurance policy. That will cost something like $100 to $200 per month.

Simple. Cheap. Easy. Doable.

The federal government guarantees all your bills over $10,000 are paid by the insurance companies, just like it currently guarantees your bank accounts.

So, American middle class families will never go broke from a healthcare crisis or catastrophe. Everything over $10K in a year is covered. Just like car insurance, the little bills are your responsibility. But they are 100% tax deductible.

On the mandate issue, both Democrats and Republicans have it wrong. There is a “mandate” with my plan. Just like everyone must carry car insurance, everyone must take a simple, cheap, no-frills, bare-bones insurance policy. But not the onerous, super-expensive mandate Obama demanded. Obama’s mandate bankrupted the entire middle class.

Who can’t afford $100 to $200 per month? THAT’S what should have been the national plan from day one.

#3) You can buy your policy anywhere- across state lines. Watch costs come down dramatically.

#4) You can buy your prescriptions anywhere- across country lines. Buy your prescriptions in Mexico, Canada, or Switzerland- wherever it’s cheapest. Watch costs come down dramatically.

#5) Mandate that doctors and hospitals post prices for every procedure online- so you can pick your doctor based on affordability. Watch costs come down dramatically.

#6) Tort reform- limit the lawsuit rewards. Patients have a right to sue, but not win the lottery. Watch costs come dramatically down.

#7) Make preventative health our national priority- your gym membership, home gym equipment, vitamins, herbs and holistic doctor visits are the way to make America healthy again. So, make it all 100% tax deductible under your Health Savings Account.

#8) No matter what Congress passes, they have to live by the exact same rules as the rest of us.

That’s "Tier One."

That leaves one missing link- the poor. They get their own system.

Call it: "Tier Two."

The poor get some version of government-run healthcare. It’s cheap and no-frills, but free. But it doesn’t affect the rest of us. It doesn’t ruin my healthcare. Why should the rest of us be affected in any way by the healthcare for the poor? Government never should have gone near our healthcare. Just come up with a seperate government-run plan for poor people.

But here's the powerful new wrinkle...

There’s a work requirement. Everyone who gets free government-run healthcare must work. Just as many states have put a work requirement on welfare or food stamps. Guess what happened? The rolls dropped by 50%, thereby saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

You want free healthcare? If you don’t want to work, you don’t get the check. From now on, you want healthcare paid by government, you’ll get a job, or the government will provide one.

That solves another problem. There are way too many government employees- about 22 million nationwide. Most getting bloated salaries and unaffordable pensions. How about replacing millions of them with all these people who need free healthcare? They'll get their free government-run healthcare, but they'll save taxpayers a fortune. They'll replace government workers.

No more $100,000 salaries and pensions for life. All these free healthcare recipients can sit in government offices for free, while they collect free healthcare. They can hand out welfare checks and food stamps. Or build bridges and roads. Or direct traffic. Or run daycare centers. This what they have to do in return for free healthcare- they get to become "civil servants." Instead of costing taxpayers billions, they'll save us billions.

No one gets a free ride. America is great again. America is fair again. Healthcare SOLVED.

Forget Obamacare....Ryancare...McConnellcare...Let's try...

Rootcare.

Who can’t afford $100 to $200 per month? THAT’S what should have been the national plan from day one.

It's not the $100 to $200 a month, it's the $10,000 for the HSA. And if you have a medical emergency in year 1 that drains your HSA then where do you come up with the $10,000 for year 2?

You can buy your policy anywhere- across state lines. Watch costs come down dramatically.

Fantasy. Five or six states allow purchase of insurance across state lines and it's been a complete failure in each case.

You can buy your prescriptions anywhere- across country lines. Buy your prescriptions in Mexico, Canada, or Switzerland- wherever it’s cheapest. Watch costs come down dramatically.

Took four proposals for one to make sense.

#5) Mandate that doctors and hospitals post prices for every procedure online- so you can pick your doctor based on affordability. Watch costs come down dramatically.

Cost comparisons for hospitals are already available online. If people aren't making use of it now then why should we expect it to change?

Tort reform- limit the lawsuit rewards. Patients have a right to sue, but not win the lottery. Watch costs come dramatically down.

Tort reform capping awards has been enacted in about half the states in the country. And in none of them has there been any impact on health care insurance premiums. Malpractice insurance, yes. But not health care.

Everyone who gets free government-run healthcare must work. Just as many states have put a work requirement on welfare or food stamps. Guess what happened? The rolls dropped by 50%, thereby saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

Including children, elderly, the disabled?

There’s a work requirement. Everyone who gets free government-run healthcare must work. Just as many states have put a work requirement on welfare or food stamps. Guess what happened? The rolls dropped by 50%, thereby saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

You want free healthcare? If you don’t want to work, you don’t get the check. From now on, you want healthcare paid by government, you’ll get a job, or the government will provide one.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What about people who literally, physically cannot work .... like my friend who was dying of pulmonary hyertension .... could barely blink her eyelids because any exertion sent her into oxygen deficit. She was bedridden, in a nursing home paid for by Medicare (she had NO assets other than two plastic tubs under her bed with some personal items in them).

Friend #2 - curled up like a pretzel with rigid limbs due to MS - again, NO personal assets (not even plastic tubs), in a nursing home paid for by Medicaid.

Neither had family who could help & certainly no one who could afford the $4-7K per month that the nursing home cost (both in a “bad” nursing home, certainly nothing with any frills - could hardly get basic care) - plus hospital visits when necessary.

Plenty of folks with dementia, Alzheimers, etc. who have run through their own assets .... again, not employable in ANY context.

I don’t see anything in Root’s plan for folks like these.

Stop dictating what must be in every healthcare insurance plan.

Stop making old men (and everyone else) pay for birth control pills and abortions.

Reinstitute the work requirement for welfare and use the savings to help offset the cost of medical care for the truly needy.

Stop all welfare, food stamps, healthcare and other handouts to aliens, legal and illegal. Apply those savings to help offset the cost of medical care.

The real trick to fixing health care: Tax it. Get the government out of it, and tax it like income.

When you realize how much your employer is paying...you will rebel. MOST people get insurance through their employer. Tax that stuff and the world will change.

The market works. When you allow it to work.

"He says "Keep government out of it," but then he starts out with points that require law:..."

He says keep government out of providing health care.

I can nitpick a number of these points, but in fairness it's the best plan I've seen. The key things are there. The secret to reforming health care is to expose prices and let them operate. People need to know what a service costs, and they must have an incentive for making reasonable choices. That is missing now and it's why health care is out of control, and was even before Obamacare.

One error in the plan is "make it tax deductible". That is a killer for for lower and middle income families. They only gain the benefit of the amount it raises them above the standard deduction.

For example, if their standard deduction is $12,000 and the total of their other deductions is $8,000, the $10,000 Medical Savings account raises their total deductions to $18,000, so they are only gaining an additional deduction of $6,000.

Make the Medical Savings Account and Health insurance premiums pre-tax. The Medical Savings Account and insurance premiums lower there taxable income. Then regardless of what their other deductions are they get the full benefit of tax reduction at their top marginal rate.

Most employer provided health insurance plans that require employees to pay part of the premium have pre-tax payments. It is much better than a deduction.

#5) Mandate that doctors and hospitals post prices for every procedure online- so you can pick your doctor based on affordability. Watch costs come down dramatically. Cost comparisons for hospitals are already available online. If people aren't making use of it now then why should we expect it to change? Almost all medical costs payed by insurance companies are based on in-network and out-of-network rates. These rates are negotiated rates and are not advertised. The hospital may list the cost of a room at $400 per day and charge the insurance company $120 per day. My wife's open heart surgery has a list price of $500,000. The total cost charged through the insurance company was less than $100,000.

The proposal would basically eliminate negotiated rates and the true cost would be the displayed price.

Regarding the “cross state lines” thing: I live on the border of three states: MA, CT, and NY. It would be wonderful to be able to drive half an hour and be able to chose between three decent hospitals. As it stands now, I am bound to a health system that is OK, but it is not as robust as it could be. The real trick to fixing health care: Tax it. Get the government out of it, and tax it like income. When you realize how much your employer is paying...you will rebel. MOST people get insurance through their employer. Tax that stuff and the world will change. The market works. When you allow it to work.

You contradict yourself saying "tax it" and "the market works, when you allow it to work." Taxes are always a distortion of the market.

All good except #4. If Americans buy cheaper drugs from socialist countries, the drug research money would eventually dry up.

Why fund research if you cannot make a profit?

The socialist countries controlled by the Left have cheaper drug prices because they refuse to pay market price. We are subsidizing the socialist countries. As it is now, we are about the only country that funds the drug research by paying market price for drugs.

If we stop, it stops.

No.
Medicaid used to cover a very limited segment of the population. Basically poor kids and pregnant women who are poor. Blind people and a few other disabilities.

Medicaid before the Obamacare expansion did not cover anyone just because they were poor.

Obamacare changed that. It relaxed the eligibility requirements to include anyone under a certain income.

"On the mandate issue, both Democrats and Republicans have it wrong. There is a “mandate” with my plan. Just like everyone must carry car insurance, everyone must take a simple, cheap, no-frills, bare-bones insurance policy. But not the onerous, super-expensive mandate Obama demanded. Obama’s mandate bankrupted the entire middle class. Who can’t afford $100 to $200 per month? THAT’S what should have been the national plan from day one."

If they made Medicare, Medicaid, and maybe the VA accept that as well ( hang with me for a minute... ) sure, it would be cheap for uncle sugar to pay for it, compared to what they are paying now. The question begs is the 1st out of pocket (10K), especially if no one has the 10k for their HSA.

Now, I do know a couple that are members of one of the "Health Care Ministries" that are exempt from Obamacare. Their is a feature in these plans that no one in the media or body politic will talk about a success within those programs that I am lucky to have heard of. It goes like this. My friends enrolled in one of these ministries notes in their monthly paperwork, it is often a note of someone in need, their 1st name, what might be wrong with them and how to donate. They do, and so does many others in these plans send extra money for those in need, they are asked not forced that is the difference.....

We are a generous nation, this feature at the State Level IMHO would work, especially the 10k for an HSA. Talk about win on top of wins...

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