I am reposting this item I originally posted on a MNpublius thread.
I agree that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing (socialist or free market) but the fact remains that we do not currently hav e a free market system of any sort. Saying so seems to place the blame on the market and fails to understand how much our current position is due to poorly designed regulations and past government involvement.
The system has to be fundamentally changed, I just want to make it better rather than worse. To do that we have to be honest about where we have been and what we advocate.
Personally I would suggest the following as a starting point. Create a system that requires all health insurance providers to sell a minimum plan, what that is TBD, that is available to anybody no matter what at a fixed price. The trickiest part will be determining a price for this basic plan. Detach insurance from employment by making all health care costs up to the price of that minimum plan tax deductible if paid for by an individual and not an employer. Then provide vouchers to those who meet income requirements to purchase the basic plan room whomever they choose.
Most people would likely purchase more than a basic plan which helps drive competition between insurers. The fact that even those on a basic plan could pick between providers would encourage insurers to work to make sure those people are satisfied. The key here is that the price set for the basic plan covered the real costs of providing care. We could start paying for this with a tax on plans above that of the minimum.
Having consumers that could potentially be on there rolls their entire lives would be a great incentive for insurers to focus on regular preventative care. The fact that most insurance is provided by employers is the core of our current problem. The provider who knows any particular individual will likely be with a different job and have different insurance in ten years has no incentive to provide preventative care to prevent problems for which they likely will not be responsible.
Single payer is a potential disaster if for no other reason than if it is designed poorly from the beginning or if it ends up being used for political reasons we could really make things worse. It also means that there is little to no recourse for those who receive bad service. If you only have one choice for health care or insurance there is nothing you can do when things go poorly and elections are not often of affective enough to help.
I agree that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing (socialist or free market) but the fact remains that we do not currently hav e a free market system of any sort. Saying so seems to place the blame on the market and fails to understand how much our current position is due to poorly designed regulations and past government involvement.
The system has to be fundamentally changed, I just want to make it better rather than worse. To do that we have to be honest about where we have been and what we advocate.
Personally I would suggest the following as a starting point. Create a system that requires all health insurance providers to sell a minimum plan, what that is TBD, that is available to anybody no matter what at a fixed price. The trickiest part will be determining a price for this basic plan. Detach insurance from employment by making all health care costs up to the price of that minimum plan tax deductible if paid for by an individual and not an employer. Then provide vouchers to those who meet income requirements to purchase the basic plan room whomever they choose.
Most people would likely purchase more than a basic plan which helps drive competition between insurers. The fact that even those on a basic plan could pick between providers would encourage insurers to work to make sure those people are satisfied. The key here is that the price set for the basic plan covered the real costs of providing care. We could start paying for this with a tax on plans above that of the minimum.
Having consumers that could potentially be on there rolls their entire lives would be a great incentive for insurers to focus on regular preventative care. The fact that most insurance is provided by employers is the core of our current problem. The provider who knows any particular individual will likely be with a different job and have different insurance in ten years has no incentive to provide preventative care to prevent problems for which they likely will not be responsible.
Single payer is a potential disaster if for no other reason than if it is designed poorly from the beginning or if it ends up being used for political reasons we could really make things worse. It also means that there is little to no recourse for those who receive bad service. If you only have one choice for health care or insurance there is nothing you can do when things go poorly and elections are not often of affective enough to help.