HEALTH CARE REFORM

There is a woman I know who worked her whole life as a home maker and then when her children were grown her husband died. She had never learned a career so she didn't have the skills needed to obtain a job with medical insurance. She was a previous cancer survivor so she wasn't qualified for private insurance. She had money because her husband was prudent and had a good insurance policy in place. Her husband's company whom her husband had worked at for 30 years dropped the family like a hot potato a month later. This woman and several million like her need help. However, the package that's being put forth will not only help this woman but will also pay for tens of millions of others who can't or don't work, tens of millions of more who are here illegally and attempt to "socialize" our medical system and I'll show you how.

The Idea.
(1) Let's start by creating the best insurance the world has ever seen.
(2) At a price that's more expensive then company sponsored insurance (that will be taxed) and less expense then private insurance.
(3) Let's offer free to anyone who is at or below poverty level (15% of the country).
(4) Let's provide subsidies for up to 400% above poverty level.
(5) Let's tax the population to get back half of this money by a National Sales Tax (VAT), an energy tax (climate change), and a host of new more subtle taxes.

The Problem:
This sound great but #1 the government can't pay for it. It is estimated to cost 1.7 Trillion dollars in ten years and as we know things always cost more. The cost will just keep rising. People don't believe Barack Obama when he says he can save this money by cutting other costs down. Remember the two trillion he "saved" after spending two trillion? Remember the 150K jobs he "saved" after we lost 2 million. You can fool all the people sometimes and some of the people all the time but you just can't fool all the people all the time.

#2, most of us who have jobs will keep our own coverage. Those don't have jobs will get this new insurance for free and now you will have a situation where not working is better than working. If you are not working and are a single parent you can stay at home get nice checks, food stamps and free health care. What is the incentive to ever go back to work? When you reward the lazy, incompetents and scammers you get more lazy incompetents and scammers.

#3 jobs will drop insurance every time you switch and rather just pay into the government pool.

So what's the answer?

(1) Let's great three categories of government sponsored but not government run insurance, bronze, silver, and gold. Bronze is an HMO like insurance which sucks but at least it's insurance. Silver and Gold, well you can probably guess what those are like. Most of us have silver.
(2) Let's give away bronze to all CITIZENS below poverty level.
(3) Let's provide some subsidies for silver up to some appropriate level.
(4) Charge $50 at the door of every clinic and Emergency Room.
(5) We will waive the charge if you are unconscious and in need of immediate emergency life saving care.
(6) Do not allow insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre existing condition or age.
(7) Companies can change price structure based on #6. They have to balance out their costs somehow.
(8) Flexible Health Savings accounts roll over and go from company to company. They are like 401k's you can save up from the time you're young till the time you're old. They earn interest by investing in bonds or cd's. Hey how about that?

These solutions and many other are just so glaringly obvious and while you may or may not agree with some or all of these our congress cannot seem to see past their big heart to help everybody with everything.

"Why are we even talking about the details when we don't know how to pay for it?" -John McCain

"Everyone deserves some type of health insurance but not gold plated." -Michael Savage.