Posted on 06/05/2025 8:47:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Here’s a brilliant idea from our friend, John Goodman, who writes to us: “If you do this the right way, it will (1) save a ton of money, (2) make it easier for enrollees to get health care.”
It would also save people on Medicaid from losing a whole day of working instead of waiting in an emergency room for routine care, and provide higher quality care at the same time.
Goodman explains:
Private companies managing Medicaid (or the state itself) should be able to make deposits to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that would cover, say, all primary care. Enrollees would be restricted to using the money for health care during an insurance year. With these funds, they would be able to pay market prices (instead of Medicaid fees) at doctor’s offices, walk-in clinics and urgent care centers – allowing them to buy medical care the way they buy food with food stamps. This would allow low-income families to have the same health care opportunities that middle-income families have.
At the end of the insurance period, they could withdraw any unspent funds for any purpose… People wouldn’t spend a dollar on health care unless they got a dollar’s worth of value.
An early study by the RAND Corporation suggests that these accounts could reduce Medicaid spending by 30 percent.. almost $1 trillion over ten years. This saving would be shared by the beneficiaries and the taxpayers who fund Medicaid.
Why does goodman think the rest of us should be forced to pay the medical expenses of everybody else just because he thinks it’s a good idea. How about they cover their own expenses or take charity. Oh, that’s right, these virtue signallers think everybody needs to follow their tune or else - and they made charity a government scam decades ago. How about the federal government stay within the bounds of the federal constitution? It lays out what they can do, and everything else is offlimits to them. And they have the gaul to cry about expenses when they shouldn’t be paying for any of it in the first place.
Noone who is sick enougn to need “routine emergency medical care” is going to be forced to work! People who are truly sick and can’t work will not be forced to earn medicaid- however there is a ton of scamming going on where perfectly able bodied people are gwtting free money (which is not free but comes from working people)
Apparently pe p ple like john eant everyone to beleieve that paralyzed people, people with no lImbs, folks who have medical comdotions which cause extreme pain or extreme exhaustion and who will be hoslitalized if forced to work etc are going to be kicked off medicaid beczuse they cant work.
Widespread HSAs would fix so many problems while keeping us off of government healthcare and also reducing this horrible insurance system we’ve been stuck with for too long.
O ther
P eoples’
M oney
We have an OPM addiction crisis.
This John Goodman has no idea how Medicaid works. Doctors won’t take Medicaid patients because of the lower contracted rates and the higher risk that comes with treating those patients.
Give them an HSA and you incentivize ALL doctors to quit Medicaid to be able to charge the higher non-contracted rate, while at the same time making them an even higher risk group to take care of. That HSA will run out, and then the doctor that started taking care of them will be obligated to continue care.
If you wanted to destroy Medicaid this is an excellent way to do it.
Your average ignoramus couldn’t come up with this- this kind of incompetence generally requires a law or journalism degree.
I stand corrected, he is an economics professor who has been throwing out different solutions for Healthcare for years. He really has no excuse in not knowing the system he is trying to change. At this level gross incompetence should be culpable.
During an insurance year?
Meaning you lose whatever you’ve not spent at the end of the year?
I tend to favour HSA, where you can deposit what you wish. It is only taxable if you choose to withdraw the money for income reasons and not medical reasons.
Otherwise, leave people alone in how they use their money.
They would still, as a safety net, be guaranteed the usual SS membership payout if their new account was a disaster AND they could bail out one time and go back to the usual SS;
They would be able to direct savings into a number of well-known ETFs.
They would have their first down payment made as children or whenever they entered the SS system.
The aggregate average account would be published for either route as a means of publicity.
It would be a fair and honorable way of coaxing people away from SS and actually reversing SS from the falsehood and liability that it is now.
Or, just do away with SS because it has nothing to do with the Constitution or functions prescribed for the Federal Government.
If we are forced to pay for others medical expenses, we the people need to have a say on who is eligible.
Fat and stupid need not apply. Healthy able bodies can go away. Elderly, infirm, injured, physically unable to work are welcome.
The HSA idea has merit. Except the part about withdrawal. Anything left over goes into a mutual fund that is not able to be accessed until the age of 60. If they die before 60, 50% goes to their estate, 50% reverts to We the people.
The reason 50% goes to their estate is an incentive to live in a healthy manner and not needlessly spend the money. Do it for your children.
ping
Congratulations on your retirement!
I can’t wait till I get to say that.
It would also save people on Medicaid from losing a whole day of working instead of waiting in an emergency room for routine care,..
What percent of those on Medicaid are even working?
One of my FB friends posted that she had to go on Medicaid after her devoted husband died. Actually, we think his live-in GF killed him. I remember she was trying to sell a $100k car that he owned and she inherited everything because they never divorced. So the whole Medicaid thing was a virtue signal.
Congrats on your retirement!! 🥳
Question ... I am not on Medicare, so have no idea ... can you use your saved HSA $$ to cover your annual supplement coverage payments/costs?
It says ‘private companies managing Medicaid (or the state itself) should be able to make deposits’ .... but, who ultimately is funding this?
The same approach could probably be taken with most regular health insurance. The silly stuff that people go and get addressed, often with the result of counterproductive medication, keeps all health insurance costs high.
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