A far better plan is to allow workers to buy their own health insurance just like they buy their own auto or home insurance. But there are several restrictions that must be removed as well:
* Insurance companies must be allowed to sell across state lines. This will allow increased efficiencies in the business. We don’t require shoe stores, or cell phones, to be restricted by state lines, why is insurance special?
* Insurance companies must be brought under the same restraint of trade or collusion laws as shoe companies are: we need to outlaw the common tables of fees that companies publish under the false front of paying “reasonable and customary” doctor charges.
* Health insurance premiums that an individual pays should be just as exempt from income taxes as are the premiums that employers now pay for group coverage.
* Health insurance companies should be allowed to sell group policies to any group they can define. This will reduce selling expenses and allow small business to form association groups that big bidnis doesn’t need because of the larger number of employees in the policy pool.
* Government should get out of the business of regulating the number of hospital beds. We would think it absurd that government would regulate the number of grocery or shoe stores, yet government thinks it is good for the consumer to forbid a hospital from having too many patient rooms. Who benefits when supply is restricted? Not the customer.
* States must not be permitted to force companies to offer policy provisions that not all customers want. I don’t need IVF coverage, yet in some states I would have to pay for that “risk” in my premium.
* We don’t expect Geico or Progressive auto insurance companies to pay for every oil change and tire rotation. Health insurance must return to the role of being real insurance against losses that the policy holder chooses not to pay out of his own pocket.
I am sure that other Freepers could add to the list.
We have gotten in this mess over several generations of tax code tweaking, labor relations and union negotiation, as well as just general custom with people who have jobs. It will take a lot of work to get ourselves untangled. Any solution that does not work to improving the incentives, will increase costs in the long run. Single payer is a recipe for having a health care system that serves everyone but serves them poorly.
We don’t have grocery insurance, car buying insurance... the whole concept of insurance for health care needs is beyond ridiculous.
Catastrophic inurance, sure....but
...Infectious disease diagnosis and care need to be included in the defense budget. It’s a modern aspect of warfare and we can’t count on patriotism to get people to spend money diagnosing and treating what might be bio-terrorism
Other things we can discuss partial subsidies where it benefits the common good, but routine care should not be covered under any kind of insurance sinc that only adds to the basic cost.