Describe your ideal health care policy.

[Toronado3800]

In my opinion the cost of the level of medical care we want makes the old private insurance / government welfare system unacceptable. Private insurance costs too much the government forces hospitals to treat everyone on my dime and medical procedure technology and associated costs are going up.

SO, to temporarily fix the math and make healthcare access about fair across the board I propose EVERYONE should have to pay their fair share. Is Obama care fair, I dunno, seems ok.

The money should probably go to private insurance companies but then again what do insurance companies do for a living? Try to charge an extra dollar to make a profit? They do accomplish a little by switching their covered providers to those who can do ACL replacements and heart transplants cheaper though so thats worth something. With enough regulations they can be kept in check.

Lets say the more or less 16% of our GDP spent on Healthcare / $7600 a year per person comes out to $633 per month. Well fine, we should all pay it. My wife and I can, guess we have to cover our kid so its $947ish a year for us.

NO ONE should be exempt from this if they expect medical treatment in the United States during their lives. Anything else goes along with the current system of I pay insurance and taxes and other ppl show up at the hospital expecting to get a treatment for free.

What I have not figured out how to do is force the lowest 5% -10% of the population to pay. On average they have more (self induced sometimes)problems than the rest. Situation sucks, unemployment is always 5% and more than 5% of our population are idiots. Ever watch cops? It sucks. So lets put another 15% onto "everyone's" costs for human failings...$1089 per year for me.

Controlling medical costs is another series of issues. Tax breaks to invent cheaper to operate MRI's....using liberal big government to regulate and limit the court system....importing more Indian doctors to create more competition...whatever ideas are fine. That's a different issue IMO.

So yes, my opinion is everyone should have to pay a federally accepted insurance company $1089 for healthcare this year, probably 1189 next, 1289 the next, you get the idea.

 

[Madeline]

The happiest I have ever been, health insurance-wise, was the PPO I belonged to down south. All Rx drugs were $5 and so was a visit to the MD. The PPOs have a bad rep as far as denying care to the very ill, especially as to experimental drugs, but on the whole I thought it was a fabulous system.

Get RID of insurance and the whole concept of risk-sharing; just pay salaries and buy drugs and equipment as needed to care for the patient load -- aka universal coverage.

 

[Care4all]

$150 bucks a month, max.... for starters.

$100 buck deductible

max out of pocket per year $1000

Insurance pays 80% for whatever the doctor thinks is necessary and best for me and each individual patient...I front the 20% for me until max out of pocket is Paid.

PERFECT! (in a dream world, I suppose)

 

[Toronado3800]

Madeline, that sounds like a good deal on the PPO! My wife's new job with a pharmaceutical company now gives her better insurance than I have even though I have been with a company seven years so I think I understand.

I feel if we just allow hospitals to bill the government for their services at the end of the year costs will rise due to the human tendency towards corruption. Government workers will also not have the same incentive as a private insurance company to inspect the paperwork.

 

[rdean]

Similar to the VA, considered by many to be the best system in the world.

To begin with, they start off with a data base where every single illness and drug treatment are entered. From that, we can know what is effective and what isn't with data pulled directly from real cases.

Insurance companies are there to make money. They would never invest in something like this and Republicans don't want them too. Because their goal is to gut the American economy and squeeze out every cent the can. It's not like they hide it.

Republicans have convinced the American People that something that actually helps American citizens is "socialism" and should be stopped. So I want a health care system that helps Americans and not just lines the pockets of a greedy few. A national data base is the place to start. The other is a public option.

 

[The Infidel]

I dont really have time to line mine out as well as OP did, but to me the ideal system is a private industriy where the Gov't is hands off...maybe some oversight, but let the private sector take care of itself.

In other words If I am not on the governments payroll, they need to leave me the heck alone.

Social medicine does'nt work... it has'nt worked anywhere else, so what gives us the idea it will work for us? Guess thats why people come from all over the world to seek HC here

No quick solutions really.... but what they rammed thru last March was a joke!


Oh... one more thing.... if your not a citizen, you go home to get your healthcare (except in extreme emergencies)
I work in the medical industry and it is appauling how many people are here illegally and we cater to them hand and foot. While American citizens wait in line behind them in E.R.'s -- thats just not right.

 

[loosecannon]

Nobody should buy any insurance except catastrophic insurance. And catastrophic insurance used to be dirt cheap, dunno what it would cost today.

I want bare bones Cuban style care with easy appointments and no waiting. I want it to cost about what Cubans pay for their care. I want the US government to allow me to make the trip to Cuba to get this care! What I save will offset the airfare and accommodations.

In an ideal world people would not receive end of life care that cost more than their net worth. Perhaps the reverse mortgage is the best way to make that happen. A lot of people who can't afford end of life care should expect to die.

We simply can't afford to spend more money on end of life care than the net worth of those receiving it.

People are not designed or intended to live to the ripe old ages we achieve.

Death panels are necessary until we learn how to face death like adults.

 

[washamericom]

we need to seperate healthcare from profit the way we need to seperate weed from drugs. a non profit private corporation. higher top business leaders. find doctor residents one year before they finish becoming doctors, pay them one hundred thousand dollars a year tax free, if they keep their job for a couple of years, pay off all of their loans. tax the shit out of the pharmaceutical companies and give the money to nurses. open up free self regulating clinics. finally, make the loser of the trial pay the cost of bullshit lawsuits against medicine and those who practice medical care.

so... make weed legal, fire the lawyers, no tax ever for doctors, nurses (no unions though) or the military. no profit for medicine, and no more breaks, just black coffe and hard work for awhile.
remember after the government, the biggest problem in america is the insurance industry, and other unions, like the post office, newman

 

[Flopper]

In my opinion the cost of the level of medical care we want makes the old private insurance / government welfare system unacceptable. Private insurance costs too much the government forces hospitals to treat everyone on my dime and medical procedure technology and associated costs are going up.

SO, to temporarily fix the math and make healthcare access about fair across the board I propose EVERYONE should have to pay their fair share. Is Obama care fair, I dunno, seems ok.

The money should probably go to private insurance companies but then again what do insurance companies do for a living? Try to charge an extra dollar to make a profit? They do accomplish a little by switching their covered providers to those who can do ACL replacements and heart transplants cheaper though so thats worth something. With enough regulations they can be kept in check.

Lets say the more or less 16% of our GDP spent on Healthcare / $7600 a year per person comes out to $633 per month. Well fine, we should all pay it. My wife and I can, guess we have to cover our kid so its $947ish a year for us.

NO ONE should be exempt from this if they expect medical treatment in the United States during their lives. Anything else goes along with the current system of I pay insurance and taxes and other ppl show up at the hospital expecting to get a treatment for free.

What I have not figured out how to do is force the lowest 5% -10% of the population to pay. On average they have more (self induced sometimes)problems than the rest. Situation sucks, unemployment is always 5% and more than 5% of our population are idiots. Ever watch cops? It sucks. So lets put another 15% onto "everyone's" costs for human failings...$1089 per year for me.

Controlling medical costs is another series of issues. Tax breaks to invent cheaper to operate MRI's....using liberal big government to regulate and limit the court system....importing more Indian doctors to create more competition...whatever ideas are fine. That's a different issue IMO.

So yes, my opinion is everyone should have to pay a federally accepted insurance company $1089 for healthcare this year, probably 1189 next, 1289 the next, you get the idea.

There is no way to control the cost of healthcare as long as it is a fee for service system. The more services the healthcare providers sells, the higher the profits. The doctor says you need an MRI and some blood work and he needs to see you again next week. The cost to patient is $30. Cost to the insurance company is $2,000. Next year the doctor repeats the same test to see what's changed plus half dozen other tests. Is the patient going to evaluate the service in relation to the cost. Of course not. He's paying an arm and leg for his health insurance and he's going to utilize it to the fullest, so the patient does not control costs. You need only to look at premium increase as evidence that insurance companies have proven to be very ineffective at controlling cost.

In effect, we have a free market system in healthcare and the buyer, patient/insurance company is unwilling or incapable of evaluating the value of the service relative to the cost. There can be only one result, higher and higher costs.

 

[Trajan]

what I have now. a health savings fund. 2500 a year, no deductible, no co-pays. Hosp stays etc. are paid from the major med. section. Zip from our pocket. No referrals nec. I see who I want, when I want.

 

[Baron]

Look in Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavian.

 

[WillowTree]

It will never be acceptable as long as 50% of us have to pay for the other 50% that leeches off of society. End of story.

 

[Big Black Dog]

My idea of an ideal health insurance policy:

(1) $100.00 per month per individual. $150.00 per month for a family plan.
(2) No pre-existing condition clause.
(3) No deductible.
(4) Prescriptions included with health insurance. No out of pocket for prescriptions.
(5) Must pay into a health insurance policy for 6 months before any coverage is provided.
(6) Insurance pays full cost for any hospitalization, surgery, medical tests or procedures.
(7) No life-time cap on coverage.
(8) Cannot be dropped from the policy except for non-payment of monthly cost of policy.
(9) A child can remain on the parents policy until the age of 23 if a full-time student. Will remain on the policy until age 18 if not enrolled full-time in school.
(10) Preventive medicine coverage that includes immunizations for those needing immunizations.

This is my idea of what a health care program should be. You pay for your own coverage or you don't get coverage. Absolutely no government control of insurance or insurance administration. Government's only role is to ensure compliance by the insurance companies. Nothing else.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Universal preventative health care for all. Of course the devil is in the details, but if free, regular physicals, innocultions and education were offered to all we might very well reduce the overall cost of medicine in our county.
Cost savings from reduced emergency room visits and early detection of heart disease, diabetes, cancer; free contraceptives will reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion; educational outreach may reduce the number and long term problems of STD's and of poor nutrition, alcohol consumption and the abuse of tobacco and illicit drugs.
Free from conception to well baby physicals and innoculations, dental cleanings and exams, and treatment for congenital problems up to the age of twenty-one makes sense and cents.

A public option available to all citizens over the age of twenty-one providing continued preventative treatment with a nominal co-pay. Those who adhere to a schedule of regular physicals and maintain a healthy weight to pay a lesser permium than those who do not.

 

[Flopper]

I dont really have time to line mine out as well as OP did, but to me the ideal system is a private industriy where the Gov't is hands off...maybe some oversight, but let the private sector take care of itself.

In other words If I am not on the governments payroll, they need to leave me the heck alone.

Social medicine does'nt work... it has'nt worked anywhere else, so what gives us the idea it will work for us? Guess thats why people come from all over the world to seek HC here

No quick solutions really.... but what they rammed thru last March was a joke!


Oh... one more thing.... if your not a citizen, you go home to get your healthcare (except in extreme emergencies)
I work in the medical industry and it is appauling how many people are here illegally and we cater to them hand and foot. While American citizens wait in line behind them in E.R.'s -- thats just not right.

The free market system for healthcare does not work. The buyer must be capable and willing to evaluate the goods and services received versus the cost. If not the provider will raise the cost to increase revenues which is exactly what's happening. Patients have little or no interest in controlling cost since their insurance company pays most of the cost. The insurance companies are ineffective at controlling costs. They just raise their premiums. It's a broken free market system.

 

[kyzr]

My idea of an ideal health insurance policy:

(1) $100.00 per month per individual. $150.00 per month for a family plan.
(2) No pre-existing condition clause.
(3) No deductible.
(4) Prescriptions included with health insurance. No out of pocket for prescriptions.
(5) Must pay into a health insurance policy for 6 months before any coverage is provided.
(6) Insurance pays full cost for any hospitalization, surgery, medical tests or procedures.
(7) No life-time cap on coverage.
(8) Cannot be dropped from the policy except for non-payment of monthly cost of policy.
(9) A child can remain on the parents policy until the age of 23 if a full-time student. Will remain on the policy until age 18 if not enrolled full-time in school.
(10) Preventive medicine coverage that includes immunizations for those needing immunizations.

This is my idea of what a health care program should be. You pay for your own coverage or you don't get coverage. Absolutely no government control of insurance or insurance administration. Government's only role is to ensure compliance by the insurance companies. Nothing else.

The problem is that medical care costs...a lot. The bad news is that 5% of the population uses 50% of the medical system, and the last 3-years of life uses about 25% of the medical system. The simplest way to balance costs is to budget/ration medical care.

[I recall one GOP whine is that 90+ year olds don't get organ transplants under UHC. I agree with that, some rationing is needed, but "who" makes the live-die decisions? "death panels?"]

 

[PoliticalChic]

In my opinion the cost of the level of medical care we want makes the old private insurance / government welfare system unacceptable. Private insurance costs too much the government forces hospitals to treat everyone on my dime and medical procedure technology and associated costs are going up.

SO, to temporarily fix the math and make healthcare access about fair across the board I propose EVERYONE should have to pay their fair share. Is Obama care fair, I dunno, seems ok.

The money should probably go to private insurance companies but then again what do insurance companies do for a living? Try to charge an extra dollar to make a profit? They do accomplish a little by switching their covered providers to those who can do ACL replacements and heart transplants cheaper though so thats worth something. With enough regulations they can be kept in check.

Lets say the more or less 16% of our GDP spent on Healthcare / $7600 a year per person comes out to $633 per month. Well fine, we should all pay it. My wife and I can, guess we have to cover our kid so its $947ish a year for us.

NO ONE should be exempt from this if they expect medical treatment in the United States during their lives. Anything else goes along with the current system of I pay insurance and taxes and other ppl show up at the hospital expecting to get a treatment for free.

What I have not figured out how to do is force the lowest 5% -10% of the population to pay. On average they have more (self induced sometimes)problems than the rest. Situation sucks, unemployment is always 5% and more than 5% of our population are idiots. Ever watch cops? It sucks. So lets put another 15% onto "everyone's" costs for human failings...$1089 per year for me.

Controlling medical costs is another series of issues. Tax breaks to invent cheaper to operate MRI's....using liberal big government to regulate and limit the court system....importing more Indian doctors to create more competition...whatever ideas are fine. That's a different issue IMO.

So yes, my opinion is everyone should have to pay a federally accepted insurance company $1089 for healthcare this year, probably 1189 next, 1289 the next, you get the idea.

1. Tort Reform:
While malpractice litigation accounts for only about 0.6 percent of U.S. health care costs, the fear of being sued causes U.S. doctors to order more tests than their Canadian counterparts. So-called defensive medicine increases health care costs by up to 9 percent, Medicare's administrator told Congress in 2005. "
Canada keeps malpractice cost in check - St. Petersburg Times

2. Reform of Insurance Policy Mandates:

Scrap all city, state, federal mandates for healthcare insurance policies. When a statute says policies must “cover mammograms of everyone 35 and over,’ how is this fair for a construction company with all male employees? What about ‘Podiatry,’ or ‘sexual reorientation surgery/? Allow insurance companies to write policies covering exactly what the consumer asks for:

Take two very different states: Wisconsin and New York. In Wisconsin, a family can buy a health-insurance plan for as little as $3,000 a year. The price for a basic family plan in the Empire State: $12,000. The stark difference has nothing to do with each state’s health sector as a share of its economy (14.8 percent in Wisconsin as of 2004, the most recent year for which data are available, and 13.9 percent in New York). Rather, the difference has to do with how each state’s insurance pools are regulated. In New York State, politicians have tried to run the health-insurance system from Albany, forcing insurers to deliver complex Cadillac plans to every subscriber for political reasons, driving up costs. Wisconsin’s insurers are far freer to sell plans at prices consumers want.

The gulf in insurance-premium prices among American states is a sign that too much government intervention—not too little—is what’s distorting prices from one market to the next. The key to reducing health-care costs for patients, then, is to promote competition, not to dictate insurance requirements from on high. Unfortunately, a government-run insurance plan is the core of ObamaCare.
Bigger Is Healthier by David Gratzer, City Journal 22 July 2009

a. NJ has some 68-69 mandates including in vitro fertilization, which adds some 2-2.5% to the cost of the policy

3.. Doctors currently have no ability to re-price or re-package their services that way every other professional does. Medicare dictates what it pays for and what it won’t pay for, and the final price. Because of this there are no telephone consultations paid for, and the same for e-mails, normal in every other profession.

4. Another free market idea aimed at better quality is have warranties for surgery as we do for cars. 17% of Medicare patients who enter a hospital re-enter within 30 days because of a problem connected to the original surgery. The result is that a hospital makes money on its mistakes!

5. Walk-in clinics are growing around the country, where a registered nurse sits at a computer, the patient describes symptoms, the nurse types it in and follows a computerized protocol, the nurse can prescribe electronically, and the patient sees the price in advance

6. To reduce healthcare costs, increase the number of doctors. Obama care would do the opposite. Both tax incentives and support of the tuition of medical school.

7. Identify the 8-10 million who need and are unable to get healthcare, including those with pre-existing conditions,and provide debit cards as is done for food stamps:

"Food debit cards help 27 million people buy food, similar to the number who need help buying health coverage. In all fifty states, debit card technology has transformed the federal food stamp program, which used to be notorious for fraud and abuse. (Only 2 percent of card users are found to be ineligible, according to the General Accounting Office.) Cards are loaded with a specific dollar amount monthly, depending on family size and income, and allow cardholders to shop anywhere. The same strategy could be adapted to provide purchasing power to families who need help buying high-deductible health coverage. It's what all Americans used to buy (see chart 5), and it's all that's needed for families with moderate incomes, who can afford a routine doctor visit. "
Downgrading Health Care

8. Current law provides unlimited tax relief for coverage obtained through an employer but no comparable relief for those who purchase coverage outside their places of work. Replace the current tax preference for employer-based health coverage with a new individual-based system. Use a combination of subsidies and tax deductions for health insurance. Ideally, the current employer-based tax structure should be replaced with a fair and equitable universal tax credit. An across-the-board, fixed-dollar health care tax credit, for example, would offer every American federal tax relief for health care

 

[Flopper]

My idea of an ideal health insurance policy:

(1) $100.00 per month per individual. $150.00 per month for a family plan.
(2) No pre-existing condition clause.
(3) No deductible.
(4) Prescriptions included with health insurance. No out of pocket for prescriptions.
(5) Must pay into a health insurance policy for 6 months before any coverage is provided.
(6) Insurance pays full cost for any hospitalization, surgery, medical tests or procedures.
(7) No life-time cap on coverage.
(8) Cannot be dropped from the policy except for non-payment of monthly cost of policy.
(9) A child can remain on the parents policy until the age of 23 if a full-time student. Will remain on the policy until age 18 if not enrolled full-time in school.
(10) Preventive medicine coverage that includes immunizations for those needing immunizations.

This is my idea of what a health care program should be. You pay for your own coverage or you don't get coverage. Absolutely no government control of insurance or insurance administration. Government's only role is to ensure compliance by the insurance companies. Nothing else.

I had a policy similar to this. The total cost to me and my employer was almost $1,000/mo.

 

[Greenbeard]

Describe your ideal health care policy.

The issue of who's paying or precisely how they're doing it isn't the most interesting question at present. For me, the ideal health policy is anything that promotes value, i.e. getting our money's worth for every dollar spent. That means preventing the preventable (be it hospitalizations, re-admissions, adverse reactions, errors, fraud, administrative efficiency, you name it) and making it easier to price health itself as an output good in our system. And that's going to involve lots of emphasis on quality measurement/reporting, making more and more information available to consumers, and having readily available (available to physician and consumer alike) information about the comparative effectiveness of various treatment options.

So my ideal policy would actually be a strategy: information, information, and more information. Organized information for doctors, for payers, and for patients (should the latter two be different), all designed to assist in making informed decisions. Information (ideally coupled with incentives) on care coordination models that work best at improving quality and containing costs. The idea behind things like the consumer-driven health care and high-deductible plans/great out-of-pocket spending is that it forces consumers to make smarter decisions. But that will only be possible--and lower spending won't be accompanied by deteriorating population health--if the information infrastructure exists for making those decisions and the delivery system itself is organized to make the best use of information.

Give me a system that 1) knows which data to collect, 2) has the infrastructure in place to collect and exchange data, 3) knows how to use data to buy (consumers) and deliver (providers) care effectively, and 4) knows how and is motivated to use data to drive improvements that enhance quality and contain cost growth.

If you don't have that in place, you're not going to have a high-value (good quality for a reasonable cost) system; you can argue about how big the average deductible should be until you're blue in the face, it won't change that.

 

[boedicca]

Health insurance is not health care.

I'd prefer to pay cash for routine things such as check ups and prescriptions and have catastrophic coverage from insurance. Unfortunately, the cost for routine items are very distorted because of the cost structure of the insurance industry.