• Can insurance companies charge whatever they want for premiums, or will there be rate caps and regulation?
• Will older people pay more for their coverage than younger people will pay?
• Even if insurers must offer policies to sick people, which may be the deal they’ve stuck with Congress, can they still “waiver out” or exclude coverage for a particular condition that poses a high claims expense? Would that mean people would have to buy a policy that may not cover the very condition they have, or face a penalty?
Campaign Desk will have more as the debate heats up and interest groups weigh in.
A common sense blunt fix for health care.
1. Set up a civilian, VA style, public health care system for delivering all government funded health care and medications free to everyone choosing to use it, no restrictions, rich, and poor, Medicare, Medicaid, etc everybody who wants public care has it free, all services, all medications, free period.
2. Pay for it with a national sales tax.
3. Let private insurers and care providers compete for everyone who wants private care, unfettered by government mandates, dictating who must be served, at what level, for what price, and totally unregulated but for safety.
4. Businesses that choose public care for their employees will have no financial obligations or any other responsibilities concerning health care.
(The Best Care Anywhere by Phillip Longman)http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html
Dispensing health care efficiently, and collecting the money to pay for it cheaply, that's the purpose of the exercise, and no one can compete with the government at these two tasks.
An OMB study of this dual solution for health care reform compared to any other would show savings of hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
#1 Posted by BillWatson, CJR on Fri 12 Jun 2009 at 10:35 PM
Can we really afford as taxpayers to authorize a public health policy and then months or a few years later open citizenship or legal residency to all the illegal aliens?
#2 Posted by Sensitive observer but realistic, CJR on Mon 15 Jun 2009 at 02:02 PM
NPR did a follow up on the Gary Cloutier story. An insurance agent listening to the story called Mr. Cloutier and found him affordable insurance he was happy with. Coultier explained he had called insurance companies who advertised on the television and all of them were too expensive. An honest insurance agent found Mr Cloutier affordable insurance. If anyone is interested perhaps they can find the NPR follow up story.
#3 Posted by mike, CJR on Tue 12 Jan 2010 at 05:09 PM