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.

Buy your prescriptions in Mexico, Canada, or Switzerland- wherever it’s cheapest. Watch costs come down dramatically.

Pharmaceutical prices are highest in places like the United States, without a doubt. The reason they're cheaper in other countries is that those countries' governments mandate a price fix. Pharma companies must comply, or sometimes not get approval to sell their products in that country. Often, they're willing to sell at a discounted price, in order to make money, but there's a limit as to how far the price on products can be reduced. If they're too low, pharma companies simply won't sell them.

Allowing US consumers to purchase pharmaceuticals elsewhere will have a ripple effect throughout the industry and throughout global markets. It's a supply and demand situation. Pharmaceutical companies will simply not sell in countries where they cannot make a certain profit margin. That means countries like Mexico and Canada might have to forgo getting the latest treatments. Mexican consumers will still want to get their hands on the best medicines, and the increased demand will increase the price.

There is also the issue of supply-chain traceability. In many other countries, it's hard to tell where the "medicine" originated; there's often little guarantee that what you're purchasing is actual pharmaceutical product, or a counterfeit product. Do you want to put a suspect med into your body, with price being your only criteria for doing so?

Far too logical, and too likely to work, to have any chance whatsoever of success.

The only Health Care plan that will succeed is one that provides a steady stream of grotesquely immense, unearned wealth to denizens of the D.C. swamp. And it must be plan that delivers no consequences whatsoever to those Swamp Creatures. It has one final necessary feature: It must be entirely non-functional and keep the Health Care System in a state of complete and total disrepair at all times. That is because it must continue to provide a steady stream of grotesquely immense unearned wealth to those Swamp Creatures for the long-term future.

That is the only kind of plan that will ever be approved by Congress.

You raise an interesting point : '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.'

I will add to that ... why do we *STILL* primarily acquire insurance through our employers? Prior to the 1930's, American's paid for their health insurance directly with after tax income. Post WWII government meddling in wage control (wage fixing) birthed employer paid health insurance. Why has that not been unwritten 80 years later? We need to get health insurance not only out of the hands of government, but out of the hands of our employers. They have nothing to do with our health or the importance we place in it. I'd rather buy health insurance in a group plan through my church (which would not fund abortion, gender re-assignment, etc) or through my health club (which encourages exercise and diet). Either one of these organizations as a group would give me *FAR* better rates than any employer could, because the group as a body is healthier on average.

...everyone must take a simple, cheap, no-frills, bare-bones insurance policy. But not the onerous, super-expensive mandate Obama demanded.

Not sure Wayne understands the problem.

The costly mandates to the insurance companies are no medical underwriting and no annual/lifetime caps on payments.

His proposal appears to keep both of them.

" I'd rather buy health insurance in a group plan through my church (which would not fund abortion, gender re-assignment, etc) or through my health club (which encourages exercise and diet). Either one of these organizations as a group would give me *FAR* better rates than any employer could, because the group as a body is healthier on average."

Interesting you say that...

In the original Obamacare debate I called my Congressman ( McCotter) and pleaded with an aide to allow Churches. My reason?

Insurance Law...

* A Natural Group is any group who is formed who's not sole purpose is to acquire insurance.
* That means the Elks, The Better Business Bureau, Your Camaro Club, and yes a Church etc etc etc.
* Those are all Natural Groups, they could offer it Now!

So I got some positive interest from the aide, but no call back, Nothing.....

It is enough to make you revile anything swampadelic. Beam Me up Scotty... Their is no competing against K Street Lobbyist and it took me until 2010 and realize they were the problem and pleaded here, wasn't wasn't the Tea Parties going after them? Then I realized ( it didn't have a name ) The GOP and the DNC are all Uniparty, we thought our guys were the good guys, and they would look out for us and do the right thing.

Man did we get screwed...

Chief Justice John Roberts rightly noted that Obamacare was a tax. Keep that reality in mind and realize Obamacare played “Robbing Hood”. There will be a tax to support healthcare but it should not penalize the young and working class via taxing income or requiring unreasonable levels of coverage. Instead we should have two classes of healthcare. One would be private, allowing you to get reasonable coverage on the open market tailored to your specific needs. The other would be public for those unable to afford or obtain private insurance. Care would be provided by government clinics with hospitalization through a voucher system. Funding would be through a small national sales tax and premiums charged on an “as able” basis.

There are many options out there. I am disgusted with a Republican Party that has not taken action to repeal Obamacare and move forward with a better system. I am even more disgusted with Democrats who have chosen to double down on stupid and fight to retain the failing Obamacare. Both parties need to remember they serve a public that has grown tired of their bickering and failure to address national problems.

He says keep government out of providing health care.

Yes, and then he says, "The poor get some version of government-run healthcare."

I don't think all his ideas are bad, by any means, but what he's NOT doing is getting government out of either health insurance or medical care. He's just using government in a different way.

"Getting government out" would be private pay, private insurance, or private charity, period.

Happy to help.

Actually, though, now I’m wondering if I can get my GP to give us free insect repellent. There are a lot of diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks: West Nile, Zika, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme disease, malaria, yellow fever ... the last two aren’t endemic in these parts, but all it takes is one infected person fresh off the plane from Cameroon, and it could be 1862 all over again.

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