[C. Edmund Wright]

I’d really like to see health care separated from the employee/employer relationship. You know, like car insurance is.

And take the comparison even further: have health insurance do what car insurance does: pay ONLY for accidents. Pay for "maintenance" out of pocket. This would make health insurance much much much less expensive and much less bureaucratic. You know, like we used to have, and called it "major medical."

[know-the-law]

I pay $156.00 p/month for a policy that covers 100% over the first $5,000. p/year...

How much do you pay p/yr for a policy that only covers up to 80% p/yr after you satisfy a high deductable???

And some of those have a ceiling to them...

[cuban leaf]

—And take the comparison even further: have health insurance do what car insurance does: pay ONLY for accidents. Pay for “maintenance” out of pocket. —

Yep. I’ll add another: I can wave Comprehensive and Collision. Imagine being able to get health care insurance that did not cover Cancer or heart disease? It would be pretty cheap. And I don’t care about either of those. And my wife and I are almost 60. We really don’t need insurance that covers pregnancy.

[mel]

That makes too much sense.

[taildragger]

Pay for "maintenance" out of pocket. This would make health insurance much much much less expensive and much less bureaucratic. You know, like we used to have, and called it "major medical."

FSA's / HSA's combined with Flexible Spending Accounts do this with great aplomb, with almost zero healthcare inflation. Their is a Doc' that ran for Congress who's business had this combo and his employees liked it...

FSA-HSA's go bye-bye under Obamacare, they are not "qualified" you know, and FSA contributions get cut in half.

Nah, can't have free market stuff that works...

[dirtboy]

And take the comparison even further: have health insurance do what car insurance does: pay ONLY for accidents. Pay for "maintenance" out of pocket. This would make health insurance much much much less expensive and much less bureaucratic. You know, like we used to have, and called it "major medical."

The Whole Foods model works quite well. MSAs for out of pocket and cat coverage that kicks in at five grand.

And allow the unused portion of MSAs to roll over, as long as basic preventative care is met such as one doctor visit and one dentist visit a year.

And allow MSAs to be bequeathed as part of an estate.

You would put the Blues out of business in no time. And that is why the establishment doesn't want to take this path.

[NEMDF]

Exactly. Have the insureds pay for checkups and routine care, at least a good percentage of it, enough for people to think about the costs and watch for fraudulent charges. Then co-pays significant enough that people will question the need for that 3rd MRI or CT scan, before just going ahead with it.