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- #161
I don't see the benefit of having a religious or fraternal organizations offer group health insurance. So to get reasonable priced insurance a person has to join a church or fraternal organization? If the church I belong decides not to offer health insurance, I should join a different church to get insurance. I don't think that makes much sense.The problem is individual plans are much more expensive than group plans because the risks can't be spread out over a number subscribers. Also group plans are much cheaper to market and administer. The insurer only needs to bill the employer not thousands of subscribers. Most employers try to hire healthy people which is another plus for the insurance company.I agree with G5000, I think a lot of our problems are employement and group policies being tied together.
OK, here is my compromise...
The biggest problem with the current health care insurance system is that plans are tied to employment (for the vast majority of people) and the entanglements that causes because if they loose their jobs they loose their coverage (and no most people that loose their jobs can't afford COBRA because they have to pay the full premiums) and it changes the market dynamic because its not the individual consumer that is doing the shopping.
Maybe the employer provides (if they choose) a "health care stipend", from a business perspective they get the deduction as a business expense. The individual takes the stipend and then uses it (along with some of their own money) to purchase an individual plan or other independent group plan (I'm think through a religious organization, civil organization, professional organization, union, credit union, etc...). The employers W-2 indicates the amount of the stipend. The insurance company issues a statement like mortgage companies with what your insurance premiums were. Both amounts go on the tax forms and any stipend received which is not spent on insurance is charged as income.
This puts the power of choosing a plan the meets the individuals need back where it belongs and makes it the individuals responsibility.
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The individual plan has the advantage that it's portable and it can be selected to meet the individual's need, but for the same coverage you usually pay a lot more.
Read the post again, it mentioned buying group plans, but delivered through different venues.
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