Real “Meaningful” Reform

Until these four options are tried/included in any “reform” of the US Health care “payment system” then any such reform is really a sop for special interest.

An comment exchange on FB re: Health care reform prompted me to make this post

Want to bring down Insurance premiums and see Insurance companies respond to the marketplace?

1. Allow selling across state lines.
This will open up real competition. How many ads to you see on TV for Health Insurance?  ZERO.  How many ads do you see in a single hour on TV for Car insurance?  To many to count.  This allows for the creation of a national-wide pool of individuals (and even businesses) and brings competition for those new customers to the Insurance market.

2. Ban Insurance enrollment periods… unless the annual enrollment includes a discount.
If you can change Health Insurance companies at will any time you want they will be forced to treat their customers better or risk losing them to competitors. The “Open Enrollment” period just allows them to lock you in.

3. Encourge people to obtain high deductable catastrophic coverage and pay for routine Dr checkups etc.. out of pocket.
That’s what I do now. Had a son break a bone in his foot. Trip to the ER with x-rays and a walking cast only cost $350 when paying cash. If it had been billed through insurance it would have been thousands. The financial clerk did not know what to do when I said I was paying cash.
This will also bring down cost as a National policy of allowing the selling across statelines would usurp (and actually be in line with the purpose of the Commerce clause) the hodgepodge of protected State run Monopolies on Health Insurance through the +50 different regulations by allowing you to actually build a policy of what you want to have covered.
For example: if your local Cable/Dish company allowed you to just subscribe to the Channels you wanted to get you would have fewer to have to wade through (that you are paying for but not watching). Your bill would then be lower or the Company would be offering steep discounts on the addtional channels to get your to take them too.  This same logic would help lower Health Costs.

4. Allow individuals the same tax breaks for buying insurnace on their own as that enjoyed by businesses buying for employees.
That way your insurance is YOURS not merely a “benefit” to keep you endentued at a job.

These are just a few common sense solutions to say nothing of Tort reform, etc… Of course the corrupt Pols won’t do any of those simple fixes.

Let’s try to lower costs before adding more Government layers of control which only increase cost.