Government Sponsored Medical Insurance
Right now the healthcare system is seriously messed up. All patients are expected to have health insurance so everyone charges higher and higher prices to try and increase that profit margin. If you’re on HMO then you also run the risk of getting one of those useless HMO doctors that are there just to collect money. Insurance companies, then, charge higher rates to make sure their profits stay nice and big. The common folk are stuck with higher and higher medical costs but with very little increase in benefits or services. This system isn’t going to go away.
My idea is to work within the system to eliminate the insurance provider middle-man as well as, perhaps, giving people a way out of the HMO nightmare. Why not have a state government sponsored non-profit Medical Insurance system? It would be completely voluntary and offer rates lower than what insurance companies offer now because it’s non-profit. It’d probably take an initial lump sum of money from the state to get started. Perhaps incentives like a cash rebate after you’ve been signed on for a year. Between being cheaper and better than the for-profit companies and having a cash rebate, such a pilot program should get a large number of subscribers fairly quickly.
This would be a state level program so it doesn’t run the risk of becoming overly bloated. It wouldn’t eliminate insurance companies, but would force insurance companies to offer lower rates in order to compete. This program would be restricted to residents of a state and would be a selling point in attracting new residents and businesses. Other states could also enact this program offering competitive rates and services. States can, then, compete with each other for residents with the quality of health insurance offered. This competition should keep rates lower and quality of service higher and would break the unspoken agreement between insurance providers to screw the customer when it comes to prices.
This is not a new tax, it’s voluntary. It’s not a universal healthcare system; it’s a way to provide quality medical insurance at more affordable prices. The hope is that the lower prices would make medical insurance more attainable.
This is a quick collection of ideas; it’s far from complete. Do you think such a system would be of benefit to people?
