A Free Market(ish) Approach to fixing Healthcare
Comments
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Good post. My solution is basic(shocker) and is along your lines of thinking.
Keep insurance companies, allow them to compete in all states AND instead of just mandating a minimum reserve, also mandate a maximum reserve. Many insurance companies have reserves that are 2 to 3 times what there worst case projected payouts would be for a year. If the insurance company is above those reserves then they would need to rebate their insureds. Doing those two things would decrease premiums noticeably.
Also, make long term care available at a young age and create incentives for young people to get it by discounting the traditional insurance premiums if they do. If you have young people paying into a pool for 40-50 years before they die, this will help alleviate the hospitals and providers getting stuck with the bill when people pass. It would be a lot like Life Insurance, the younger you are when you get it, the cheaper it is.
As for hospitals, doctors and surgeons. Let's get those costs in line by putting cost caps on certain necessary procedures and also get put some serious caps on the cost of meds. ( that's a whole different animal of course) Let's also get some competition for the mal practice insurance that providers need to carry so that they can still make a decent living while charging lower prices for their services. -
Think about it, if during the course of your work life you were able to put away $50,000 in HSA savings. That's a little over $100 a month for 40 years of working. You'd have saved over $100,000 making just a 3.5% return on your investment.
Now if you knew you could use that money to extend your life for a few weeks at the end of your life or leave to your kids or wife what would you choose?
How many people would save even more than that if every dollar you put in up to a certain dollar amount was pre-tax money? You need to give people incentives to curb their medical care expenses and right now there are none. -
You’d have to separate health insurance (at least the HSA) from the employer benefits so they could take it with them when they switch jobs.salemcoog said:Also, make long term care available at a young age and create incentives for young people to get it by discounting the traditional insurance premiums if they do. If you have young people paying into a pool for 40-50 years before they die, this will help alleviate the hospitals and providers getting stuck with the bill when people pass. It would be a lot like Life Insurance, the younger you are when you get it, the cheaper it is.
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Everything you said after this I disagree with. You are attempting to micromanage a market and haven't thought through any of the secondary effects of what any of your policies would create.salemcoog said:Good post. My solution is basic(shocker) and is along your lines of thinking.
Keep insurance companies, allow them to compete in all states AND instead of just mandating a minimum reserve, also mandate a maximum reserve. Many insurance companies have reserves that are 2 to 3 times what there worst case projected payouts would be for a year. If the insurance company is above those reserves then they would need to rebate their insureds. Doing those two things would decrease premiums noticeably.
Also, make long term care available at a young age and create incentives for young people to get it by discounting the traditional insurance premiums if they do. If you have young people paying into a pool for 40-50 years before they die, this will help alleviate the hospitals and providers getting stuck with the bill when people pass. It would be a lot like Life Insurance, the younger you are when you get it, the cheaper it is.
As for hospitals, doctors and surgeons. Let's get those costs in line by putting cost caps on certain necessary procedures and also get put some serious caps on the cost of meds. ( that's a whole different animal of course) Let's also get some competition for the mal practice insurance that providers need to carry so that they can still make a decent living while charging lower prices for their services.
Ex. Cost caps sound great from a consumer's first view except that they will simply create a shortage of supply by reducing the number of providers. Long term net loss. -
Imagine how much cheaper care would be when consumers are connected to the cost of care as well. All of a sudden price becomes important to the value proposition again.SFGbob said:Think about it, if during the course of your work life you were able to put away $50,000 in HSA savings. That's a little over $100 a month for 40 years of working. You'd have saved over $100,000 making just a 3.5% return on your investment.
Now if you knew you could use that money to extend your life for a few weeks at the end of your life or leave to your kids or wife what would you choose?
How many people would save even more than that if every dollar you put in up to a certain dollar amount was pre-tax money? You need to give people incentives to curb their medical care expenses and right now there are none. -
I don't understand any of this. I know I blew up terrorists for a number of years, and that netted me some healthcare. Fuck yeah. I would have blown up terrorists for free, but throw in health care? FUCK YES.
Now, let's not talk about my "quality" of health care...
edit: Sorry about your second cousin @PurpleBaze but he really shouldn't have been in that Toyota -
Just set it up how 401k's currently work. You can either leave it untouched for a given amount of time in the same fund or transfer it to your new one.USMChawk said:
You’d have to separate health insurance (at least the HSA) from the employer benefits so they could take it with them when they switch jobs.salemcoog said:Also, make long term care available at a young age and create incentives for young people to get it by discounting the traditional insurance premiums if they do. If you have young people paying into a pool for 40-50 years before they die, this will help alleviate the hospitals and providers getting stuck with the bill when people pass. It would be a lot like Life Insurance, the younger you are when you get it, the cheaper it is.
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The VA is the best example of why the US shouldn't have state run healthcare...Swaye said:I don't understand any of this. I know I blew up terrorists for a number of years, and that netted me some healthcare. Fuck yeah. I would have blown up terrorists for free, but throw in health care? FUCK YES.
Now, let's not talk about my "quality" of health care... -
Hmmm... So you're saying that making insurers return excess reserves wouldn't save the insured money???UW_Doog_Bot said:
Everything you said after this I disagree with. You are attempting to micromanage a market and haven't thought through any of the secondary effects of what any of your policies would create.salemcoog said:Good post. My solution is basic(shocker) and is along your lines of thinking.
Keep insurance companies, allow them to compete in all states AND instead of just mandating a minimum reserve, also mandate a maximum reserve. Many insurance companies have reserves that are 2 to 3 times what there worst case projected payouts would be for a year. If the insurance company is above those reserves then they would need to rebate their insureds. Doing those two things would decrease premiums noticeably.
Also, make long term care available at a young age and create incentives for young people to get it by discounting the traditional insurance premiums if they do. If you have young people paying into a pool for 40-50 years before they die, this will help alleviate the hospitals and providers getting stuck with the bill when people pass. It would be a lot like Life Insurance, the younger you are when you get it, the cheaper it is.
As for hospitals, doctors and surgeons. Let's get those costs in line by putting cost caps on certain necessary procedures and also get put some serious caps on the cost of meds. ( that's a whole different animal of course) Let's also get some competition for the mal practice insurance that providers need to carry so that they can still make a decent living while charging lower prices for their services.
Ex. Cost caps sound great from a consumer's first view except that they will simply create a shortage of supply by reducing the number of providers. Long term net loss.
Also you think that forcing providers, whom already have their patients held hostage due to in network requirements, to charge a fair market rate would somehow send providers fleeing to learn how to code?
Chinteresting. -
I agree and think it could easily be done. Instead of the employer paying the insurer directly. Have the employer pay the employee whatever they currently pay to the insured to the employee and the employee pays the insurance company directly. This further increases competition and lowers costs all on it's own.USMChawk said:
You’d have to separate health insurance (at least the HSA) from the employer benefits so they could take it with them when they switch jobs.salemcoog said:Also, make long term care available at a young age and create incentives for young people to get it by discounting the traditional insurance premiums if they do. If you have young people paying into a pool for 40-50 years before they die, this will help alleviate the hospitals and providers getting stuck with the bill when people pass. It would be a lot like Life Insurance, the younger you are when you get it, the cheaper it is.
