« Ebay Should Buy Zillow | Home | The 80s vs. the 90s! »
Max’s Healthcare Solution
By Max | February 10, 2008
For some reason the whole world is clueless about how to fix healthcare. Almost any Joe off the street can tell you what the problem is. Its expensive and not everyone has access to health care. Well I have figured out how to fix it. The answer is market forces!
See all the problems started half a century ago as WW2 was ending. The US government in its infinite wisdom decided that it would be great for all the troops to have healthcare when they returned from war. So what did they do? They started giving corporations tax breaks for paying for health insurance. Naturally the companies decided to take advantage of this, and thats why the vast majority of people today are insured through their jobs. Why they didn’t give Americans tax breaks for their own insurance, we’ll never know?
So this has created the problem. I think its important to note that our government put us into this situation. They placed incentives in the market that allow workers with good jobs to get health coverage while everyone else is left out.
Employer paid health insurance creates another problem besides creating a number of uninsured people. It completely removes market forces from health care decisions. If you have insurance through work, you essentially have “free” health care. I have it with my job, and I never think about how much I am actually paying for services. I don’t select doctors who are capable but cheaper. I just go with my friends’ recommendations. I don’t ever choose to forgo that last round of pain meds because insurance covers most of the cost. Removing these cost decisions from the health care industry has allowed health care costs to run amok. The drug companies charge whatever they want. Doctors can charge whatever insurance allows them to. They have an incentive to recommend the more expensive procedures regardless of the actual needs of the patient.
To fix health care we need to introduce these price choices back into the market. Socialized health care would create a much bigger problem than currently exists. Why do you think the communist governments of the world are all giving way to more free market economies. Its simple, socialism doesn’t work. With a single payer system, people will overuse. Innovations in health care will be stifled because the government won’t want to pay a premium for people to use them.
My solution is to remove the tax breaks corporations receive to provide health care. I imagine most people will want a higher salary anyway. There are two groups of people who would be really hurt by this plan. The government should provide health care for children. We shouldn’t punish children for the mistakes of their parents. The second group are those people who find themselves in a health care disaster scenario. I propose that the government pay for these catastrophic type problems as well. How would this be implemented? Well, individuals would be responsible for their own health care costs up to 30% of their own salary per year. Anything above this amount would be covered by the government. Basically everyone in the US would have a 30% of their salary deductible with regards to health care expenses. A person could still buy private insurance if the idea of big health care bill coming one scares them. But at least individuals are making these decisions and not the government for them. Under this plan, people will have an incentive to shop around for the best deals. They also won’t want to over use health care that isn’t necessary for their condition.
It’s too bad something like this would never be implemented. The insurance companies in American have a huge lobby in Congress. Congress is watching out for their interest, not yours.
Share ThisTopics: Ideas |
March 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hey Max! Time for a new blog update!