Posted on 03/28/2017 8:09:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
For those keeping score at home, here’s a recap of where the Washington healthcare debacle currently stands:
And Americans get screwed. In other words, typical Washington.
There is a better way, however. And it is being pushed by the very guy who stated repeatedly throughout the primaries that he actually had a plan for ending the Obamacare nightmare: Ted Cruz.
I gladly admit that I am not a policy wonk. But all that is needed is a modicum of common sense to recognize that many of the problems Obama highlighted in pushing Obamacare are indeed real problems.
It is not right that your co-worker with employee-based insurance, who develops cancer, loses his job because of a recession thus losing his insurance, and then is not able to buy health insurance on the open market because of his “pre-existing condition.” That’s absurd and wrong.
The Obama solution was to force insurance companies to accept anyone with a pre-existing condition. Obviously this is not going to work because people won’t buy insurance until they get sick and need someone else to pay their expensive bills. So to solve that dilemma, Obama ordered that all people buy health insurance whether they want it or not. Forcing people to buy it ostensibly allows insurance companies to make the money they need to cover all these pre-existing condition patients.
It’s heavy-handed government planning and despite its good intentions, it’s not working. So here’s the Cruz idea in a nutshell:
What does matter is the American people deserve a better healthcare system, Washington seems content with letting them suffer with the one we’ve been given, and Cruz is offering a great idea that deserves support.
Forget your partisanship, forget your frustrations, forget your allegiances and political alliances, and think about your family. This is too important a moment to let pass by.
Enforce Title 15 and no third party paying for routine and elective events and you got a deal.
At least it sounds doable...however I want to see Obamacare completely repealed...and as another wrote..let the market work.
What a crock of shit.
Apparently, this moron doesn't understand basic psychology. If he's going to take cheap shots like that, I have no interest in reading the rest.
Democrats will claim victory, Republicans will blame each other, Trump will triangulate to make it seem as though he got from this exactly what he wanted all along or that this is all part of his infinitely genius grand master scheme that no one can fully understand yet.
And Americans get screwed. In other words, typical Washington.
Inasmuch as Trump likes to win, and doesn't like to get blamed for poor outcomes, I find it hard to believe that he would willingly pass (and accept the blame for) something that would have Americans "get screwed" and be branded as "typical Washington".
If Ted Cruz has something that could be called "Cruzcare" that would be a good replacement for Obamacare, than that's fine, and I'm sure President Trump would sign it.
But I'm not interested in hearing about it from this person who, like the Democrats, chooses to take President Trump hyper-literally whenever it suits the propaganda goal of undermining him...
That’s the way it’s been explained to me, by my mother and she was the one that took care of such things back in the day. She was also an office manager for a small town doctor for close to 30 years. She watched the whole system go to the toilet. One of the things she was pretty adamant about, was that the downward spiral started during the Clinton presidency. When crony capitalism seemed to go into overdrive.
What kills me the most about healthcare is, that businesses can deduct the expense of providing healthcare(great tax deduction for the business), but the individual cannot, unless it hits a certain monetary threshold(if I’m not mistaken). And again, if I’m not mistaken, that rule was pushed by the Dem’s and none other than Pelosi.
When I got laid off I applied for COBRA. The annual premium they wanted was nearly 30% higher than my entire gross annual salary had been.
Yes, the horrible stuff hit the rotary blades, around the time Clinton was president; though things had been sliding somewhat, for quite some time.
Dems and the damned unions....you can place a whole slew of noxious things at their feet!
Obviously, your employer offered and paid for, one heck of a great coverage plan.
OTOH...couldn't you find somewhat less expensive insurance?
I agree and those were the first four words of his plan.
The employer contribution and its tax-deductibility, an effective subsidy, should be replaced by a direct subsidy to the insured, whether or not employed. This would be calibrated to be revenue-neutral.
We Cobra’d our insurance from my husband’s last employer—it’s a huge risk pool so we have good coverage for zero deductibles and $18 co pays.
We’re paying $400/mo for the two of us.
We set all this up before Obamacare hit. We were so thrilled not to have to participate in that garbage.
Bottom line: medical insurance is really not the Federal Government's business. "Cruzcare" still sounds too statist to me.
The Swiss also have euthanasia clinics. You don’t want to emulate them.
That's the clincher...Kinda hard for many to pay for Cobra AFTER your last job...
1) Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, CATO, Heritage, Freedom Caucus and everyone even 80% in agreement need to agree on commonnalities in a healthcare bill.
2) High and increasing cost must be recognized as the #1 problem to attack. No method of paying for the cost will be economically or politically feasible until that cost is reduced. That includes pre-ACA, ACA, Ryancare, Cruzcare, single-payer socialism and everything in-between.
3) Over-Regulation by the Slavitts of the bureaucracy must be removed. Most of this regulation can, and should be removed by Tom Price-Seema Verma. But some of it requires Congressional action. Congress should act.
4) Competition must not be limited to just insurance companies and employer based insurance plans. With de-regulation and de-coupling of health insurance from employment, there is no reason why health insurance cannot be sold just like auto and homeowners insurance.
A level playing field would allow health insurance to be sold competitively packaged in the same policy as auto insurance and homeowners insurance. Right now we have health insurance like provisions in P&C insurance policies. There is not reason why they cannot be expanded in both partially and totally.
In a level playing field, health insurance could be packaged with bank accounts and credit card accounts and any and all financial vehicles outside of traditional health insurance. As with P&C insurance, these other vehicles already have partial health insurance plans that could be expanded.
5) Competition must place non-insurance approaches on a level playing field.
Medishare type sharing plans that are not insurance but work should be encouraged.
Provider Direct plans that cut out all middlemen should be encouraged.
Voluntary Charity must be encouraged.
6) All competitors must be allowed to price for all lifestyle choices. Consider pre-existing conditions. Some of them are due to genetics and factors over which the individual had no control.
But many costly pre-existing conditions are due to the risky lifestyle choices of the individual... choices of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, promiscuous sex, gluttony, sky diving, etc.
It is not “fair” for those who have chosen a risky lifestyle be subsidized by those who chose a safe lifestyle.
7) Tort Reform and costs of defensive medicine must be addressed. Red States should take the lead in Tort Reform and not pass the buck to Congress.
8) Patient Centered Care. Currently the customer of the doctor and the customer of the hospital is not the patient. The Insurance Company and CMS-Medicare-Medicaid are the customer. The patient is only a widget in the medical industry process.
The patient must be given control over his own care. The vast majority of patients are awake in the right mind and able to make rational decisions. They should be given the cost and benefit of each activity and be allowed to refuse treatment.
Cost means that each medical provider should publish on the web his schedule of fees pegged in $10 and $100 increments.
$10 for procedures A, B, C
$20 for D, E
$30 for F, G
$100 for R, S
$1,000 for X, Y
etc.
Of course, cost also includes the downside that a procedure might not be successful. The medical provider and patient should be able to enter into various forms of a contract.
- If the procedure is successful, the patient pays.
- If the procedure is unsuccessful:
-—+ The patient (or his Medishare or Insurance)pays anyway
-—+or
-—+ The patient does not pay and the medical provider incurs the cost. When you hire a mechanic to fix your car’s flat tire or alternator and he fixes it, you pay.
But when the mechanic does not fix the problem, regardless of how much time he spent on it, do you pay?
Giving this power between two willing and able parties will be the #1 cost reducer.
Yes, 10% of patients are in a coma or otherwise unable to make their own decision. That is a separate topic too long to be covered here. But creating voluntary contracts for the 90% of patients will dominate the pricing of the other 10%.
9) There may be other points a Paul-Cruz-CATO-Heritage-FreedomCaucus-AFP-ClubForGrowth-Trump-TomPrice-SeemaVerma coalition might want to include. There is not perfect solution to the mess.
But there are many things we can agree on. Above all, we must agree that cost is the #1 problem and nothing will work unless cost is addressed.
Simple and common sense approach doesn’t compute for politicians which Trump is quickly becoming on healthcare. I like it.
“What they need to do is punt the issue to the States/People and remind everyone that the federal government is broke and that very dime of revenue until FY2023 or later is slated for debt service. The 10th Amendment spells this out well and the National Debt enforces that the Feds can’t pay for health care.”
Absolutely right.
The obvious question is: why wasn’t this pushed by the President and/or the conservatives in Congress?
Again, per the inauguration speech, Trump indicated that this was the time the power was to be transferred from Washington DC to the people. Well, this is the perfect (and correct) way to follow through with that pledge.
Obamacare needs to be repealed in its entirety, all at once and forever.
The legislature and the Supreem Court needs to be censured heavily for bringing and slaving the people of this country to a product solely controlled by the government, and that has, itself, chosen not to participate in, because it sucks so bad.
Any governmental discussion in respect to mandates on how I live my life or spend my money need to be squelched.
Remember liberty?
Boggles the mind what a destructive force the Democratic Party has become. I guess that’s why there’s such an ever increasing gap between the two parties and the fact that the people are so divided.
You you also want the government to give out subsidies for home and car insurance?
Please think about your position.
Our populace is SO damned divided ( at the least, as divided as it was, shortly before the Civil War and perhaps more so ), due to the eight long, horrid years of Obama! The Dems have been pushing their crazed agendas, class warfare, divisive crap, for several decades.
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