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Here are my suggestions – maybe they’re already in place, I’m not sure:
1. Give doctors tax incentives to treat patients below a certain income for free.
2. Tort reform. Tort reform. Tort reform.
3. Allow purchase of health insurance across state lines, except in cases of violations of state law (i.e. if NY has laws mandating coverage for X, and there’s a policy in NJ that covers it, you should be able to buy the latter policy).
4. Associations of small businesses and fraternal organizations should be able to pool their resources to buy health insurance for their employees.
5. Covering the cost of (at least) preventive care, vaccinations, and regular checkups through a public option.
Excessive drugs and/or alcohol a part of your ‘lifestyle choice’? Don’t sweat it! Your are an addict, you have a disease, you are now afforded special protection and treatment by both your employer and insurance company.
You play sports, jog or workout frequently? Need hip and or knee replacement surgery or have chronic back pain because of your ‘lifestyle choices’? Have no fear sports related injuries are protected and covered by insurance.
Cancer runs in your family? Why not spend tons of time at the tanning beds or beach without protection. Don’t worry about your lifestyle choices, we’ll cover your treatments.
Have too many deserts? THE HORROR!!! You and your lifestyle choices are shameful, repulsive and In fact, I will label you as such and demand you cough up more money immediately.
I agree w/ chicken on tort reform. It’s also possible for the gov’t to run a decent program. I have better coverage on mandated medicare than I had while paying $1100. a month for private insurance -w/ high deductible & no choice of doctors.
The following changes to insurance regulations would immediately drive down the cost of health insurance. Basically, all of these regulations would put the health insurance market in line with other types of products:
a) allow risk-based premium pricing, as I mentioned above;
b) tort reform, per Chicken
c) BIG ONE===> allow insurance to be sold across state lines, as is down with ALL other insurance products. This would end the stranglehold that state legislatures now have to mandate frivoulous coverage.
d) allow folks who buy their insurance policies privately to take a tax deduction. It is not fair that companies can deduct insurance premiums, but individuals cannot.
e) ANOTHER big one ===> allow different types of insurance products!! If someone wants to buy insurance to just cover catastrophes, they should. If someone wants coverage for just basic medical care, they should be able to buy that product too.
Carry out these five points, and medical costs will cease to be an issue.
True, but back to my point about innovation. It takes a lot of money to research and develop a drug and very little money to actually mass-produce it. We cover the cost, paying the free-market price, and other nations get it for much less, right? I would assume that massive purchases of meds by government-run health care systems everywhere result in a volume-based discount, but maybe I’m wrong. I’d certainly like meds to be cheaper, but I also want new meds to be developed, and the innovators who do so should be handsomely rewarded.
Maybe Biff should go into the medicine-smuggling business. He could call it the Life Star.
biff, having had cancer as well as my sis we would rather not have to deal with a bureaucracy in determining our treatment. As for canada, I had a large paint brush in my hand as my father had a heart attack in banff and we were stuck between a rock and a hard place with the hospitals/officials. Wouldn’t help him, but also wouldn’t let him leave. Totally agree with you about lawsuits, but unfortunately we’re a litigious society here.
“That’s alright – food is going to get a lot more expensive in the next couple of years.”
That might actually make things worse. The healthy food will likely go up more in price than the unhealthy food making people cut whatever healthy food they might eat completely out of their diet.
Here are my suggestions – maybe they’re already in place, I’m not sure:
1. Give doctors tax incentives to treat patients below a certain income for free.
2. Tort reform. Tort reform. Tort reform.
3. Allow purchase of health insurance across state lines, except in cases of violations of state law (i.e. if NY has laws mandating coverage for X, and there’s a policy in NJ that covers it, you should be able to buy the latter policy).
4. Associations of small businesses and fraternal organizations should be able to pool their resources to buy health insurance for their employees.
5. Covering the cost of (at least) preventive care, vaccinations, and regular checkups through a public option.
While we’re on the subject of risk based pricing…
Excessive drugs and/or alcohol a part of your ‘lifestyle choice’? Don’t sweat it! Your are an addict, you have a disease, you are now afforded special protection and treatment by both your employer and insurance company.
You play sports, jog or workout frequently? Need hip and or knee replacement surgery or have chronic back pain because of your ‘lifestyle choices’? Have no fear sports related injuries are protected and covered by insurance.
Cancer runs in your family? Why not spend tons of time at the tanning beds or beach without protection. Don’t worry about your lifestyle choices, we’ll cover your treatments.
Have too many deserts? THE HORROR!!! You and your lifestyle choices are shameful, repulsive and In fact, I will label you as such and demand you cough up more money immediately.
I agree w/ chicken on tort reform. It’s also possible for the gov’t to run a decent program. I have better coverage on mandated medicare than I had while paying $1100. a month for private insurance -w/ high deductible & no choice of doctors.
I agree with Chicken about tort reform.
The following changes to insurance regulations would immediately drive down the cost of health insurance. Basically, all of these regulations would put the health insurance market in line with other types of products:
a) allow risk-based premium pricing, as I mentioned above;
b) tort reform, per Chicken
c) BIG ONE===> allow insurance to be sold across state lines, as is down with ALL other insurance products. This would end the stranglehold that state legislatures now have to mandate frivoulous coverage.
d) allow folks who buy their insurance policies privately to take a tax deduction. It is not fair that companies can deduct insurance premiums, but individuals cannot.
e) ANOTHER big one ===> allow different types of insurance products!! If someone wants to buy insurance to just cover catastrophes, they should. If someone wants coverage for just basic medical care, they should be able to buy that product too.
Carry out these five points, and medical costs will cease to be an issue.
“Lowering costs of medications would help.”
True, but back to my point about innovation. It takes a lot of money to research and develop a drug and very little money to actually mass-produce it. We cover the cost, paying the free-market price, and other nations get it for much less, right? I would assume that massive purchases of meds by government-run health care systems everywhere result in a volume-based discount, but maybe I’m wrong. I’d certainly like meds to be cheaper, but I also want new meds to be developed, and the innovators who do so should be handsomely rewarded.
Maybe Biff should go into the medicine-smuggling business. He could call it the Life Star.
biff, having had cancer as well as my sis we would rather not have to deal with a bureaucracy in determining our treatment. As for canada, I had a large paint brush in my hand as my father had a heart attack in banff and we were stuck between a rock and a hard place with the hospitals/officials. Wouldn’t help him, but also wouldn’t let him leave. Totally agree with you about lawsuits, but unfortunately we’re a litigious society here.
“That’s alright – food is going to get a lot more expensive in the next couple of years.”
That might actually make things worse. The healthy food will likely go up more in price than the unhealthy food making people cut whatever healthy food they might eat completely out of their diet.
“Obesity is chronic and expensive in this country.
Posted by: DeLepp at August 3, 2009 4:30 PM”
That’s alright – food is going to get a lot more expensive in the next couple of years.
in a land of plenty, we nit pick. coming from a ton less, I appreciate