I sent this letter to my congressmen. I would love to see what people think of it. It’s long, and I’m sure needs revision and fine tuning, but I ask for you to evaluate the concept.
I asked this last week but people firestormed it off of here. I’m trying again. Report me and I will chase you to the ends of the earth.
Dear (name)
I have a proposal of my own regarding health care reform that I wish to submit for your consideration. I know I likely have a lot of goofups with my numbers, but it’s the concept I would like evaluated. I think this could really work.
Currently, the federal government covers 83 million people already. 43 million through Medicaid ($440B, 2008 numbers) and 40 million through Medicare ($208B from the Feds, and $157B through the states (2007 numbers). So, total $805 billion for 83 million people, or roughly $9,700 per person! Let’s say $10,000 per person to keep the math simple.
What’s the average household size being covered? Average in the US is 2.65 (2000 Census). So, let’s be conservative and say 2. That makes the average household being covered getting $20,000.
Average premiums, including both the employer and employee portions, were $4,704 for single coverage and $12,680 for family coverage in 2008.
So, we ALREADY spend (i.e. collect through taxes $20,000 per household. But the cost to cover a household through private insurance averages only $12,680.
There are 48 million (so they say) currently without medical coverage. 13 milion are illegal immigrants, leaving 35 million. Not all of those uninsured are unable to buy health insurance. Many chose not to. So let’s just put the amount of people who need help one way or another at a cool 100 million, or 50 million households. This gives us a working budget using the premiums we already collect of $16,100 per household, without spending a DIME more of taxpayer money.
Now that we have that out of the way…. my proposal…..
1. Leave medicare/medicaid premiums as-is.
2. Abolish medicare/medicaid programs altogether. Currently the fraud and waste level in these makes them WAY more expense than private health insurance.
3. Establish a voucher system for low income people to allow them to shop for and buy their own private health insurance, based on their AGI. Make it on a sliding scale. This money would NOT go to the people themselves, but would be directed to a health insurance company of their choosing.
Example (would have to be tweaked depending on household size)
Up to 75% of the poverty line: up to $15,000 per year pretty much 100% coverage. You can buy a stellar family health plan for that much.
76-100% of the poverty line: up to $7,500 per year.
101-125% of the poverty line: up to $2,500 per year.
>125% of the poverty line - nada.
If these people have some kind of employer paid coverage available, then that amount of money can be used to offset the employee contribution.
This would actually make money be left over, since not all households on medicaid would need the full amount. Then, make all health insurance costs, both premiums and out of pocket, 100% tax deductible and not subject to deduction limits. This would encourage people to buy their own.
I KNOW there are almost certainly bugs in this, but roughly speaking, this would accomplish the following:
1. Get rid of wasteful government medical coverage.
2. Get the government out of deciding what kind of health care you can/can’t have.
3. Make health insurance affordable to all. If you still have no health insurance with this, it’s because you just can’t be bothered.
4. Doesn’t cost ONE THIN DIME more than what we currently pay.
5. Does absolutely nothing to disrupt the private health insurance programs we already have.
If you’re a poor family with a $15,000 voucher for health insurance, companies will be tripping over themselves to cover you. Honest.
All statistics I quote are gathered from wikipedia, and the references are cited within those articles.
Thank you for your time.
——————
I’d like to know why anyone would oppose this. Please explain why if you do.
Nit-picking little flaws is not what I’m looking for. I’m sure there are plenty.
I think you are off to a great start with it- I would support this before I would support the proposed plan for sure.
When/if you get anything back you should tweak it as needed and let us know. I’m sure you would have others who would be glad to forward this to their reps. as well.
Wow! That’s what would make the most logic. but remember, that is too logical and covers the least amount of spending. Bush wanted to do that but the lefties in the House and Senate wouldn’t let him.
He probably wiped his *** with it. That was helpful to him and I bet he thanked you.
You can take your lies about “many people chose not to have insurance” and cram it.
Prove it, you emotional little NeoCon - just because you “Feel” that this the way it is - doesn’t make it true.
Great idea, overall, BUT I still think that medical care should be kept FULLY in the private sector, which it hasn’t been since at least FDR or even earlier. People in this country used to get REAL QUALITY medical care from a doctor who knew the family, cared about what happened to them AND made house calls. You’re income level didn’t matter either. You just paid what you could, when you could. Where is that concern for others NOW? Most doctors these days treat it like a get-rich-quick scheme or a way to help big government intrude on your privacy. I want to get back to a TOTALLY PRIVATE health care option.
I actually really like this. The only thing that I would do differently(which prolly no one would agree with) is to close the border and to start to weed out the illegal immigrants. That will take care of that 13 million. That’s just how I would do it though. But, knowing the senators, they will probably just shove this into a pile full of knowledgable suggestions that they will NEVER read. I hope it gets passed that though! Good luck!
This is a pretty logical plan and I think those who choose not to have health insurance just don’t budget for it, my mom is one of those who preferred to have material things or fun money over having health insurance and as kids we didn’t get to the doctor often…I even had scarlet fever and she did very little to get me to the doctor after the first visit…and now that she is old she has nothing because she refused to save, get insurance and prepare for the future…because she spent all her money on things that were not necessary when she was younger….now you can call me cold hearted but she got her self into this mess and never furthered herself through education so I will not help her in any way financially…her bed she made it… I think many Americans choose the same with a very small percentage who actually try to get insurance and truly can not afford it….but I feel most spend their money on vacations, things for the home that are not necessities just not budgeting properly.