A MODEST PROPOSAL
Tony Reynolds
I have a friend who placed the following article pertaining to ALL the Health Care proposals in the “public forum” of one of the local newspapers. This sounded like a plan that could exist and work with the retaking of our Republic Constitution for all the people.
Love and Light
PU
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A MODEST PROPOSAL
Congress and the president contemplate a national health plan law. However, there remains disagreement among lawmakers of what the new law should provide and for whom, as well as who should pay. Some related principles are favored by both lawmakers and citizens, including that everyone be covered and fairly so, that insurance companies be required to compete resulting in better performance and pricing, and that services provided to all the people by the government are paid for with taxes collected from some of the people by the government.
Many believe that the new law should be concise, simple, and easy to understand. I suggest that the new law cover “each individual U.S. citizen and legal resident, except active-duty military personnel and their family dependents of the same residence”. I further suggest that experts conceive a list of basic health services comprising the coverage that everyone would have from birth to death. The list would include preventive and curative care for pharmaceutical, mental, dental, optical, ENT, surgical, medical doctor check-ups and consultations and emergency room, ambulance, and hospitalization situations.
The basic coverage would be free. The treasury would pay private insurers along with a single government insurer the identical sum times the number of individuals who enrolled with each, and make the figures public. The same rate would apply without regard for age, health, race, income, gender, family size, occupation, place of residence, or any reason whatsoever. Enrollees could change insurer effective any Jan. 1. Albeit free, this arrangement would be less expensive that the dollars presently going to the complicated bookkeeping of the many health plans and less expensive because there would be no tax consequence to any insured. Licensed health care providers would bill the patients’ insurers.
The basic coverage would be required; and eligible not-enrolled person seeking any public benefit or service would be added to the health care roll. Since everyone would have the new nationally portable basic coverage, other government health insurance (congressional service, civil service, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, etc.) would cease. In addition, there would be no reason for employers to provide company plans. The government insurer and the private insurers, each competing to attain higher volume by better performance, would insure the precisely same basic coverage for participants.
The law would require employers to pay for healthy needs of non-legal residents and their dependents who share the same residence for the period of employment and the subsequent 60 days.
Also available would be additional coverage beyond what “everyone should have.” The government would not offer additional coverage. Only the private insurers who offered basic would b e eligible to offer additional. Here, each private insurer would devise one or more such Cadillac or gold-plated plans and establish the price of each and collect from the individual patient who chose that additional cove rage from the insurer.
TONY REYNOLDS
La Crosse
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