Dr. Ben Carson would dump all of Obamacare but one piece

Remember that neurosurgeon guy who said he wanted to run for President? If you work for one of the major cable news networks or the nation’s largest newspapers you probably don’t. I base this anecdotally on the fact that I was struggling this morning to recall the last time I saw an interview with him or coverage of a campaign event he held. It’s almost as if he’d already folded up his tent and gone home. That’s particularly strange in light of the fact that nationally he’s still tied with Huckabee for 5th, he’s a solid 4th in Iowa and 5th in New Hampshire.

But Carson is still out there on the trail, so it seems fitting to check in on him. The candidate did a Facebook “ask me anything” style exchange to reach out to younger, social media using voters, and he hit a variety of topics. He went after Planned Parenthood pretty hard, saying he was “sickened” by the actions of the organization, and called for an end to all government funding to them. Sticking with a health care theme, he also addressed Obamacare, which he still wants to cancel almost entirely… but not quite. (From Inquisitr)

These are the kinds of policy statements which give the health insurance industry nightmares and should set the teeth of customers on edge as well. The problem with Obamacare isn’t the individual items… it’s the entire package, and Carson should know that. We can divide the big ticket elements of the Affordable Care Act into two buckets to make things easy; the goodies and the baddies.

On the goodies side we find all sorts of great sounding stuff which people like. There’s the idea of people with preexisting conditions getting coverage which Carson clearly likes. Heck… I like it too! It sounds just great. There’s also keeping kids on your policy for longer, wellness initiatives and all manner of other things which carry great populist appeal. Then there’s the baddies. The mandates – both individual and employer – and the spectacularly unsuccessful attempts to “influence” prices downward, the anaconda style entanglement with Medicaid and all the rest.

The problem is, you don’t get one without the other. If Carson is willing to keep only the government mandate that people with preexisting conditions must be covered without penalty, the underlying system of insurance policies collapses. Why would anyone – particularly the young and relatively healthy – waste their money paying for insurance until they actually become seriously ill? Then, when you get the terrible diagnosis, you just pick up the phone and start your policy. Insurance companies would either go out of business overnight or jack up everyone’s rates astronomically to cover their losses. It’s pretty much the opposite of a win-win.

I’m glad to see Carson still out there mixing it up, but I think he needs to continue getting some tutoring on policy and stay awake in debate prep school. He’s a smart guy with a lot of good ideas, a solidly conservative stance on most of the subjects of interest to the Right and he has a winning personality on the stump. In short, he has most of the baseline boxes checked off for what you want in a potentially successful candidate. But he’s going to have to get all of his policy details down pat before he takes on the rest of the leaders in the current field. This exchange with his supporters was not encouraging.

Health Care Reform by John Mackey, Whole Foods CEO

• Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness. Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.

• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

The original editorial is here: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Here is one FR link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2313920/posts

I would modify the “pre-existing condition” as follows:

If you reach the age of 18 (or whatever), you either buy insurance or you don’t. If you do, you cannot be made “insurance-less” due to changes in your employment or your health as long as you keep making payments. It would be a sort of COBRA, without COBRA’s price gouging. Perhaps it would have to be a government pool. BUT, if you do let your insurance lapse for some period, you are subject to the premium rating that is appropriate for your risk class. That is, you could see a huge increase in premiums if you get really sick while you are skipping insurance.

That gets rid of the “oops, your insurance is gone” problem, and it gets rid of the free-riders who wait until they are sick to show up for insurance, desiring “community rating.” I suppose those people will have to get some minimal Medicaid type triage out of charity.

That’s my proposal.

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