Conservatives. What SHOULD health care in America look like?

1. First, and the most important thing, is that government appointees and all elected members of Congress and their staffs will use the same healthcare insurance and facilities purchased on the open market that all Americans use and subject to the same rules and regs. No Cadillac plan for members of Congress while the rest of us have to make do. (That should apply to their retirement as well--they will pay into their own 401K or whatever while they are there and take it with them when they leave office or their position, and that is ALL the retirement they will receive from their government position. And they are required to follow the same rules and regs re their 401K as everybody else.)

2. In my opinion the government, in the interest of promoting the general welfare, should pass a law that health insurance carriers can offer their product in any state they choose to and the states must apply whatever rules and regulations they have for health insurance carriers equitably among all vendors--no special deals for anybody. That would break monopolies that eliminate most competition. Competition has always been and still is one of the best influences not only to control costs but to encourage quality of products and services.

3. The federal government should promote tort reform in every state encouraging the states to establish loser pays laws in those areas in which frivolous law suits drive up costs for everybody. That would eliminate a whole bunch of such lawsuits and stop most of the payoffs just to avoid high legal fees to defend such lawsuits--payoffs that the patients ultimately pay for. The cost of liability insurance healthcare facilities and professionals have to pay would be a fraction of what it is now and that in turn would also lower costs overall.

4. The federal government should allow insurance to offer hospitalization insurance again with reasonably high deductibles and offering medical costs outside the hospital after a sizable annual deductible has been satisfied. That means that most people would pay out of pocket for routine health care again just as we pay for routine maintenance on our automobiles, real property, computers, etc. and insurance could become much more affordable because it would cover only the really unaffordable stuff that doesn't apply to most people. And insurance companies could tailor insurance for the needs of the buyers instead of everybody having to accept a one-size-fits-all policy when they don't need a lot of that coverage. Insurance would again become affordable.

5. Hospitals and urgent care centers would still take emergencies even if the person did not have insurance and could not pay, BUT the patient would have to sign a legal obligation to pay off his/her debt as much as he/she can legally afford. That often might have somebody paying the rest of their lives and they might have to give up buying that new car or new house or give up their unlimited cell phone plan or a great vacation, but it would allow them to avoid bankruptcy.

6. The federal government would provide incentives/encouragement for the states to set up assigned risk pools or other provision to provide insurance at a higher rate for those with pre-existing conditions or otherwise difficult to insure just as they do for hard-to-insure workers compensation, general liability, auto insurance, etc. This would remove that liability from people who choose healthy and safe lifestyles and allow them to be able to buy insurance at much lower costs than otherwise would apply.

7. It would have to be done over decades to avoid breaking faith with the people who have been made dependent on it, but gradually the federal government should allow Medicare and Medicaid to be privatized or put back under the jurisdiction of the states. Eliminating the massive bureaucracy necessary to manage such programs, as well as removing all the fraud and graft that simply gets built into it, would remove a hugely expensive layer of costs from healthcare in general.

8. And employer owned insurance policies should be done away with. Employees could still be a risk group or they could join any other group but they would own their insurance policy that would go with them when they left that particular job. Employers could still pay a certain amount monthly for insurance premiums for the employees as a perk/benefit, but the employers should not own the policies.

There are other things that could and should be done, but that would be a good start.

 

The repetition would be never having done one and never doing it.

See, same thing over and over.

When it gets to that age however I don't really need to see a pic of the person, just their bank statement.

 

You got me. Lol.

 

Frankly I think Jan wanted that as well and I was a very hot male at age 40. Not that at all today.

Let me give you an idea of me then.

 

Ha, I love old pictures like that.

Bet you never thought you would be on something called the internet discussing politics back then did you?

Love that 70's car in the background.

Hahahahaha, glad I can't see more of it or I would be laughing too hard.

 

That car was in Berlin Germany. LOL We had not then heard of a fax machine. We were fairly new to color TV. I did not envision the end of the telephone booth. Do you know what the telephone booth was? LMAO The photo is dated 1963 prior to the 70s cars. Got you good.

 

Wow, I thought I was old, but you're an old coot!!! I was born in 63. You were a strapping young lad, probably like my dad at the time.

 

I've never used one, no.

I don't think they even exist anymore do they?

And ewww, who wants to talk on a phone that some bum was probably licking with his tongue.

Gross

 

Hell yeah very gross. The phones in my opinion did not look good for licking them. I have not seen a phone booth in CA for a long time.

My first time using what now is a portable phone was around 1977 and we had to use a call sign.

My first car phone was put into my car around 1989. I do not have a car phone. I carry a cell phone.

 

Roger wilco that alpha zebra.

 

In the army, one of the training Sgts would say to those of us being trained on the use of the combat radio, Roger Wilco Over and out and under and through. He tried to be funny.

 

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

 

Fiat money. Yeah.

 

The snipe is over there

 

Learn the lessons of history. No fiat money survives in the end.

 

How does this whole pre-existing condition thing work? Never once when I changed insurance companies was I required to take a physical, answer any medical questions, or provide any health records. How would they know?

 

And I think YOU should be forced to buy MY products. Now what do you think?

 

Was there ever a gap in coverage when you changed companies?

 

Pre-existing conditions weren’t an issue with employer based insurance. It was only an issue in regards to obtaining individual insurance.

 

Article I, Section 8?

 

The snipe is over there

 

Conservatives want the government to get out of healthcare entirely including regulations. The healthcare market isn't able to keep costs down and by its nature will keep prices spiraling out of control. Healthcare will become less and less affordable and the poorest will lose government help to afford it. Insurance will get weaker and weaker as well and cover less and less and fewer and fewer employers will cover healthcare. People will put off going to the hospital until they really have to and will have to pay even more massive healthcare bills. Everyone will be a health condition away from bankruptcy. An elimination of government regulations will result in more malpractice, ineffective health treatments, lower healthcare quality, predatory healthcare practices to get money out of patients, and much more.

 

Yes. At least twice. Once when I took a new job that didn't provide insurance, so out of sheer laziness I didn't bother getting my own for several months. And another time where I resigned voluntarily because I worked for Satan himself, and it took a number of months for my now wife and I to get married making me eligible for her employer based insurance. Insurance that, btw, covered a $1M+ bill after a botched surgery left me in the ICU for 4 months. My out of pocket was $200. Now, we all know my insurance company didn't pay $1M+, but finding out exactly what they did is doable, if difficult, because of what my wife does for a living. But I don't care.

 

That wasn't an issue for me, as my above post will explain.

 

I recently became aware of PBMs because Trump's administration has brought them out into the light:

Obamacare was run by PBMs. PBMs will put a more expensive drug into the formulary if they get a larger kick-back than from an equally good and cheaper drug.

You need to do some research.