Posted on 10/17/2019 10:33:07 AM PDT by TangledUpInBlue
So what to do? Here's my idea and it's pretty simple. It centers around a principal mandated in my State as part of auto insurance called "Uninsured Motorists". Yes, part of my premium is to pay for accidents that people with no insurance cause. So, taking that a step further.
1) Private Health/medical practices and plans stay untouched. If you have it, keep it. If you like your Dr. - keep him/her. No changes.
2) If you do not have insurance, you will get a FEDERAL VOTING/MEDICAL ID card similar to a drivers license. If you get sick, you go to the Dr. of your choice, or to the hospital of your choice and you pay a small co-pay, let's say $20 and that's it. The Dr./Facility then bills the US Government who settles the bill.
3)Because the Government is dumb, they'll need to know how much to pay the provider. My plan would commission a panel of experts: Doctors, Nurses, Techs, HHS Secretary, Several High Ups at HealthCare Insurance companies and some Czar that POTUS appoints to oversee it all. They will determine the AVERAGE cost that insurance companies pay for all possible procedures. You know, you get a $5,000 x-ray bill, the negotiated price is $300, the insurance pays $280 and you pay $20. This will be agreed upon by the panel and PUBLISHED. The government will then pay the provider.
4) OK, so how to pay for this? a) Charge people an additional payroll tax. Yes, it hurts, I know. But it will be small. Like 1/4 of 1% on earned salary with NO CAP. (i.e. Uninsured Motorists) b) Businesses to pay an additional 1/4 of 1% just like they match the other half of payroll taxes. c) Create a Federal Annual Report Fee that is levied upon EVERY business entity conducting business in the US. This is solely for the privilege of doing business. No long laws. Floating Scale - $100 per year for the smallest entities up to $10,000 per year for the Amazons of the world. Tie it to gross sales. IRS sends the bill on a postcard. d) All of these charges must go 100% to the "Uninsured Medical" fund. By Amendment to the US Constitution. No diverting the money. e)All new payroll taxes are permanently capped. No increasing them in the future. This will also be part of the Constitutional Amendment. f)Obamacare is repealed.
Now, I realize these percentages may be off slightly. This is a simple, simple model. But why can't this work? The people in the government out of work because of the Obamacare repeal will monitor the new Annual Report Fee and be the ones administering the new US Medical plan. The interest earned on the "Uninsured Fund" gets plowed back into the fund - by Constitutional Amendment. No of this stuff can legally be diverted to ANY other use.
OK, I stand ready for your questions and/or abuse. :)
Sounds like Medicare for all.
Anything can work if you throw enough money at it, and I highly doubt your .25% payroll tax is going to come close to paying for it. My company covers 85% of my insurance premium and it costs them a whole lot more than .25% of my salary. And as companies eliminate their own insurance plans and force their employees onto the government plan, or as employees abandon their employer plan and jump on the government plan, which only costs them .25% of their salary, you'll see the costs rise into they hundreds of billions of dollars of additional spending each year.
>>No one wants government to be running healthcare. No one wants to see private industry decimated.
This is incorrect. The Rats want exactly that, and more.
How about this solution: “everyone pays for their own dang healthcare.” It’s time we re-defeated communism.
“And as companies eliminate their own insurance plans and force their employees onto the government plan, or as employees abandon their employer plan and jump on the government plan, which only costs them .25% of their salary, you’ll see the costs rise into they hundreds of billions of dollars of additional spending each year.”
These are valid points. And yes, I’m not sure what amount would be required to fund it. I just threw out a percentage to make the example.
That said, there will be a lot of people paying into it and likely not using it. Those that are 22-32 years old let’s say. That age group will likely rarely need a major procedure. Maybe the corporate annual fee would need to be raised higher at the bigger levels. Maybe $50,000.
I’m just thinking about the framework. Thanks for your thoughts.
This is another possible alternative. Get businesses out of providing any medical insurance. It’s the only kind of insurance they pay for.
So give everyone a raise - say maybe 75% of the premium that the company pays per person. So the company saves 25%. This will increase payroll AND the uninsured medical tax. Then, let everyone go and get their own insurance from ANYWHERE. Open up the markets.
This is a good solution too. The thing is, there will still be people that don’t buy insurance. They will still get sick, or have a car accident etc... Who then will pay for that?
.25% HC tax.
My wife and I made combined last year slightly under $200k.
Your .25% tax is $4900 based upon 200k.
Our combined monthly health insurance premium right now is $1540 per month with a $7900 deductible each.
You mean like the Obamacare mandate? That wasn't very popular, was it?
As long as health care is a for profit business in this country there will never be a simple, less expensive solution. Hospitals and doctors will charge what they want and think they will get away with.
“2) If you do not have insurance, you will get a FEDERAL VOTING/MEDICAL ID card similar to a drivers license.”
If this was the case every business in the US would drop their health insurance plans overnight.
anything free will be abused. how about making people with no health insurance volunteer at the hospitals and drs. offices. let them earn medical credits for every volunteer hour they work? sweep, collect trash, work the cafe and kitchen , mow, weed shovel snow etc..
TUIB...I believe you got lost on your way to DU. You wrote “But it will be small. Like 1/4 of 1% on earned salary”
You have to be kidding, right?
Income Tax: In 1913, the top tax bracket was 7% on all income over $500,000 ($11 million in today’s dollars); and the lowest tax bracket was 1%. “It will never go higher” said the pols.
Social Security: In 1937, it was 1% on the first $3,000 of income. “It will never go higher” said the pols. Prior to 1991, Social Security and Medicare contributions were combined in a single tax.
Medicare Tax: In 1991, it was 1.45% on first $125,000 of income. “It will never go higher” said the pols. Now it is 1.45% on all income and an additional 0.9% over $200,000.
California Sales Tax: In 1933, California introduced its sales tax at a rate of 2.5%. “It will never go higher” said the pols. (LA County is now 10% on EVERYTHING you purchase).
Pardon me for being blunt, but you are naive.
How about we get back to people taking care of themselves and not the nanny state which saps more of our freedom every day of the year?
Ok, but you’re not factoring in the employer match and the annual report fees for business entities. Like I said, on the surface my math probably doesn’t work. But there should be a place where it does.
Maybe the employer tax is higher than the employee? Maybe the co-pays can be higher? Maybe there’s another option to raise more money for the fund? For example, what if we invoke a “Loser Pays” Law regarding lawsuits in any medical related cases? This could reduce malpractice premiums and then we could divert some of that money to the fund.
This is just a framework.
No, the mandate was a penalty on your tax return. This is a payroll tax. It’s not something you can opt into.
“Doctors, Nurses, Techs, HHS Secretary, Several High Ups at HealthCare Insurance companies and some Czar that POTUS appoints to oversee it all. They will determine the AVERAGE cost that insurance companies pay for all possible procedures.”
I’m in the health insurance business. This is how it is currently done for the most part.
You have removed financial accountibility from the patient. Bloat and cost increases are the result. Capitalism, not socialism, results in excellence.
Oh, you poor blind mouse.
That's the goal of every plan to provide "health care for all" because until private industry is destroyed in that field the government can't get away with the sort of eugenics and homicide they want to impose while calling those things, "unfortunate necessities" required to be able to pay for "the good of the people".
The only difference in the plans is whether it's bold and destroys private industry in the health field right off the bat or tries to pretend that's not the goal by slowly strangling private health care providers.
The mandate was that you had to buy insurance. Pay for it one way or pay for it another, it's still a mandate.
I hear you. Believe me, I work in the tax field for a living. I never want to give Pols another tax stream because they will always raise it as you so aptly show.
BUT... none of those taxes are backed by Constitutional Amendment to be permanently capped. If you tell me they will easily vote to AMEND the Constitution to increase a tax, well then I’d agree with you.
And I also don’t disagree with your self-care statement but there are people that truly CANNOT take care of themselves. They are not all welfare drains. Yes, I sound like a Dem. But I do think our humanity compels us to help them. Some people need more than a casserole or barn raising.
That's pretty much the way things were when I was growing up. No one was dying in the streets. My father was a clerk when I was born. I was in a NYC hospital with my mother for a week following a normal delivery. My father paid the bill in cash when we left.
The poor relied on clinics and charity, but ordinary folks required neither.
When I was a kid the doctor was in an office by himself. or sometimes one nurse (or his wife). Now a doctors' office is filled with other doctors and at least as many office clerks. These clerk send data to other clerks in faraway office; and government clerks oversee everything. All these people have to be paid and they provide absolutely NO MEDICAL BENEFIT.
ML/NJ
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.