It SOUNDS good..........
That's as far as I need to read.
bump
And Reason is supposed to be a “libertarian” site?
All I see are those state rules becoming mandatory in all regions. Every insurer will have to provide for every problem imaginable. They won’t be able to say our plan won’t cover abortion or drug addiction so you can have a lower rate, because the states will require that everything be covered. That means that the cost of health care will increase for everyone because the cost to insure will be going up to cover all these things.
I keep hearing that the system is broken. But it seems to work better than any other system in the world. If there is a better system working somewhere else, let’s study it. If a better system does not exist elsewhere, why keep trying to mess with this one?
Why is it that the word “mandatory” has to creep into every political solution to every problem faced by society?
When people have to write checks they actually feel the pain, and down come the costs for everybody.
Next, lets get employers out of the income-tax collection business....
Sure, they’re jettisoning the group health plans only to create a demand for wage increases. The idea that corporations find it a burden to insure through a third party or via self-funded insurance is absurd. The cost to the employees would be much greater outside the group plan and would in turn force salaries upwards, create ill-will, and an attraction to competing organizations that offer such benefits. The managed benefits of corporations providing health insurance (and savings plans) to their employees is win for both the employee and employer. The costs get covered one way or another.
Let me explain it to you like this. Is anyone jumping in to insure the folks who aren’t insured today, at a reasonable rate? Okay, then you know who will jump in to give you reasonable rate when businesses no longer provide the service. Nobody.
You will be paying over a $1000 per month for family coverage.
Now, do you think your employer will raise your wages since they won’t be providing health insurance any longer? If so, put down the bong pipe.
This is just one of the last employment perks to be stripped from employees.
We just priced adding me to my wife’s coverage at work. For one person it was going to be $380.00 per month without dental and optical coverage. And this wasn’t a premium coverage plan.
Wow. The Romney virus is running wild, even on FR.
Could be fatal to our free republic.
We can agree with this ... as my husband has been battling cancer for the last 10 months [he currently has the diagnosis of complete remission - thank God]. Part of the stress associated with treatment and recovery is always wondering if and hoping his employer does not fire him and he lose coverage.
We WILL return to our republican constitutional roots in my lifetime.
BUMP
Let the companies that are now providing health insurance to their employees calculate what they are spending and simply add that to their wages or salary on a text exempt basis. Then let the employees pay doctors and hospitals when the need their services, sort of like you do when you fill up your gas tank or go to the market for groceries. No third parties involved. No paperwork for the doctors and hospitals. No insurance companies to deal with. No government bureaucrats to deal with. Life like it was in the 50's.
To dream.
You are under arrest
Why?
For failure to buy health insurance
Ping.
The problem in the US is not “lack of health insurance”, but lack of health. Lack of health is not due to lack of insurance but due to inattention to everything related to one’s health like weight control, diet, exercise, safe lifestyle and even goes to where one lives.
So how does the gubmint legislate health? Let’s say it’s the law that one has to “be healthy” - so it is mandated that everyone have two checkups per year. Everybody in the entire US goes to a doctor twice per year. The doctor tells them to stop doing all the unhealthy stuff the do now. REALLY now, what percentage will actually do so based on their being told by a doctor?
To those who are healthy why do they have to have insurance? I don’t insure my car for full coverage because it is a 1993 Volvo - if it wrecks I either pay to fix it or junk it. I save about 200 bucks per year on car insurance. Similarly with health insurance - if I don’t have it and say I break my arm I pay out of pocket. How much is a broken arm say 2000 bucks? My group plan costs me about 300 per month for a reasonable health policy with a 500 deductible. SO my out of pocket per year is 4100 bucks - if I pay for my broken arm I actually saved 2100 dollars!
Before the gubmint jumps into this they should try an experiement in a state with a smaller population - say we pick North Dakota and pay for two checkups every year for every person and track their health costs for a couple years whether they have insurance or not - and see what shakes out. I would bet that nothing changes - a very small percentage will change their lifestyle but they would anyway. The majority will take what is free and ignore the advice.
We have to stop equating health with health insurance. We should also put more doctors all over the place, more nurse practitioners, flood the market. Then let the doctors advertise their fee structures just like we have let all the personal injury lawyers! Right now there is no competition in the health care market - an MRI costs 1800 bucks? I don’t want to buy the machine, just rent it for about 20 minutes. Yes it is costly to buy (couple million), but at 18000 PER DAY in fees that gets paid for pretty fast.
How about that medicine too - I take Zomig for migraines - 20 bucks PER PILL! Tell me we can’t regulate that - we regulate milk prices, gas prices, fuel prices, but our gubmint can’t regulate drug prices?
We don’t need any national health insurance. What we need is to first figure out how to get people to live a relatively healthy lifestyle, then get the costs under control so they are based on something real, get drug costs under control. That process will take years. Without these controls in place first any single payer health insurance will bankrupt the country while enriching drug companies, doctors, hospitals, lawyers, and lobbyists.
End the unfair treatment. Employer-paid health insurance premiums are not taxed.
either:
tax them
or
make self-paid health insurance premiums a deduction from taxable income
Pick one. The current system is unfair.