I Have Solved The Health Care Crisis

by Nathan on Mar.05, 2009, under Modern Jackass Theory, Politics

Flickr : Darren Hester

I was bored the other day, so I decided to solve the healthcare crisis. You are welcome. The first thing we need to do is stop being scared of the word “socialized”. I have socialized healthcare, and it’s the best healthcare in the world, literally. I work for a large company and I pay $0 every month for my health insurance. Yes it is a part of my compensation, but they give me a decent salary too. I don’t have to worry about preexisting conditions, I can see pretty much any doctor I want, and I only have a $10 copay. I’m not sure what my prescription drug benefits are, but I’m pretty sure they are good. I also get dental care and a good discount on glasses. If I had 10 kids, they would get the same health care for no additional cost. Why is my healthcare so good? Because I’m part of big group of people who all get the same healthcare and the cost is spread out over all of us. It’s called socialism. The only people who don’t have socialized healthcare are those who have an individual plan that they purchased on the free market. These people’s healthcare is expensive and it sucks. I’ll take the socialist group plan thank you.

Now I know what you are thinking. You think I’m going propose some type of government controlled socialistic single payer health care system. No, not at all. That would be stupid. The United States has a state of the art, big, giant, complex health care system. Change is expensive. Even if something like a single payer system was the best system, which is a big if, but even if it was the best, the effort required to move from our current system to a dramatically different system is insurmountable. It’s can’t be done. The only way to change a big complex system is to make small incremental changes.

There is really only one fundamental problem with our healthcare system: preexisting conditions. As you probably know, if you have any type of preexisting condition and you can’t get socialist group health care, you are screwed. You can not get health insurance, or if you can, it is ridiculously expensive. We could blame the insurance companies for this, but it isn’t their fault. They have no choice. They could “do the right thing” and offer insurance to people with preexisting conditions, but then they would have to charge more, and then they would go out of business. Preexisting conditions are not an issue for socialist group insurance plans, because everybody in the group is forced to have insurance, so the cost of providing health care to those with preexisting conditions is spread out over the group. Again, this is socialism, and in this case it works great.

Some states have tried to fix the preexisting condition problem by requiring certain conditions to be covered by any health insurance plans sold in their state. This is a good thought, but all it does is make insurance more expensive, which drives away the people without said conditions, which just makes the insurance even more expensive. So what’s my brilliant solution? I’m glad you ask. My solution contains two simple components:

There should be a national set of minimum requirements that every health insurance plan sold in the United States must have. These minimum requirements should amount to what you would expect from a lower end socialist group health insurance plan. Insurance companies can charge whatever they want for these plans, and they can offer more expensive plans with more benefits. However, any plan that an insurance company sells must be sold to anyone who wants it at the same price. Insurance companies can not discriminate based on age, sex, health, weight, or anything else.
Individuals who can afford health insurance must be required to purchase health insurance. Same goes for parents and their children. This is necessary, because if you are going to force insurance companies to cover everyone, you also have force everyone to purchase insurance. This is how the socialist group thing works. Individuals still get to choose their insurance company and the plan they want, so the whole free market thing still exist.

I’d also like to work something out so that those who can’t afford health insurance are covered too (especially children), but I think that will have to wait for phase two. The steps above will fix many of the failings of our current system and provide a foundation for future enhancements. The best thing about this plan is that it is not a dramatic change from our current system. In my case, I am forced to pay for health insurance. I could choose not to enroll in my company socialist group insurance, but they wouldn’t pay me anymore. I don’t care though, because I am guaranteed excellent health care at a reasonable cost. The current system of employer provided socialist group health care works great. We need to take this system and extend it beyond employer boundaries. It should be extended to the entire country as one big group.

I happen to know that President Obama reads my blog on a regular basis. Okay, I don’t know for sure, but I assume he does. So Mr. President, feel free to take my plan and use it verbatim. If you want to throw in a medal of freedom or something for me, that’s cool. I mean I’m far to humble to be comfortable accepting such an honor, but if you feel like it will inspire the country or something, I can deal. You know, for the greater good and stuff.

3 Comments for this entry

Jnet
March 6th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Man, I so want to revisit this post when I haven’t been awake for 27.5 hours - after 1.75 hours of sleep (previewed by 8.5 hours of awake time; previewed by 16 hours of sleep; previewed by 32 hours of awake; previewed by 4.375 hours of sleep…..)

I worked in the health insurance industry for ten years. Fixing the healthcare crisis is a MAJOR undertaking. I worked for several years with the Federal Employee Program (FEP) who have the best benefits around — and that was confusing like a mo-fo.

Heck, even working FOR the health insurance company, I had to pay for my policy, could not add a spouse if they had insurance available to them from their employer (even if they didn’t want it, just because it was an option, they couldn’t be added onto my policy — unless they elected their employer’s insurance AND signed up for mine as secondary coverage).

I can assure you that a group health plan and socialized medicine are two totally different things. On the surface, they are similar — spreading the risk over a large number of people. But in actuality, they aren’t the same. Not even close.

I’ve had a few Canadian friends explain their experiences in Canada versus the US. And really, I don’t think that one or the other is the solution; it should be a combo of both, plus the option for an individual plan. But whatever happens - there are too many people with serious, untreated medical conditions just because they can’t afford it.

And pre-existing condition clauses, while suck-ass, are so far from the problem. There are so many other variables that are troublesome, too many to list in a comment; health insurance in the US is a mess.

The system is really set up to fail. Even if you are lucky enough to have coverage, even if it’s through a group health plan, one catastrophic event can lead you to a life of financial ruin.

It’s amazingly sad, really.

I recently walked a friend through a serious operation. As he had no health insurance, it was hard for him just to get someone to look at him. Literally, he had a terrible hernia for more than a year. Now, you’re a dude…. imagine your intestines resting in your scrotum for a year before you could even find someone to look at you and then waiting another 2 months for someone to try and fix it. Wow.

I could go on for days, but instead I’ll just leave you with that beautiful image.

Remember, kids, a scrotum is no place for your intestines.
Matt E
March 15th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Rosey- one thing you might not be accurate on. Group plans are typically more expensive than individual plans. As an employer, I have a group plan that I pay 100% of my employees’ premiums on. In most cases, the individual could go out and buy an equivalent plan cheaper than my premium to add to them to our group. Don’t think that the insurance companies aren’t charging a “premium” to the premium for the fact that they must accept any employee that I hire without condition. The cost(s) is still there, regardless of whether it is an included benefit, or the person gets additional pay and goes to the “free market” for coverage.
I love providing this benefit, but if I don’t maintain a good balance of cost/benefit, it’s one my customer’s have to pay for through increased prices. The downside to this type of coverage or socialist coverage is that it reduces the individuals participation in the process. By this, I mean responsibility. You will pay far greater attention to your overall health, diet, exercise regiment, etc, if you directly write the check to the carrier and you can see the benefits or detriments(through cheaper premiums or less overall costs) of your decisions. Entitlements are for dependents (children, the infirm, etc). Pay for it and you will respect and appreciate it far more.

On a side note, could you fix education, too?
I’m also sick of people with children getting tax credits when those of us who don’t have children, are paying more and using less public services. Get to work!
Rosey
March 15th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Personally, I would like it if we got away from employer provided health care. I just checked, and my employers claims to spend over $400 a month on my health care. I have to admit, that was more than I expected. If I went out and purchased an individual plan that covered the health care I actually use, I’m sure it would be much cheaper. Especially considering that I am relatively young and healthy. But what if I wasn’t young and healthy. What if I had diabetes or something worse. Chances are I couldn’t get an individual plan or it would be prohibitively expensive. The fact of the matter is, the only realistic solution requires the young and healthy to share the cost with the old and not-as-healthy. I’m fine with this whether it is socialistic or not.

I agree that peoples choices are an important part of managing health care cost. I can think of a few coworkers that almost abuse their health care plan as if it is some type of all you can eat health care buffet. I’m sure I am indirectly paying more for my health care because of these peoples choices, and that’s not fair. So the free market still needs to be a part of the solution. I just don’t want that free market preventing people who need health care from getting it. I also don’t want the free market to let people go bankrupt from medical expenses.