Healthcare for All?
December 7, 2007 | General
Regarding healthcare and the 45 million Americans who are uninsured, do you think that Massachusetts legislation took a step in the right direction when they made health insurance a requirement by law?
I believe the concept that we should be encouraging/requiring individuals or households to purchase their own insurance is an important and critical first step to fixing our nation’s problems. The current American healthcare finance system needs radical revision. The single-payer solution is neither politically nor economically viable and I think that HSA plans are a positive option – one that can help fix our countries ever-growing health insurance problem.
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Comment by Forchng December 20, 2007
A radical change is change is required in the system. 47 million are uninsured and another 40-50 million are not reasonably covered even after spending $2.1 trillion. At this rate we need another $1 trillion to cover everyone.
Also, the projected national healthcare expense in 2016 is $4.13 trillion. Who is going to pay this huge bill? Simply the money is not there for any regulation to work in the current system.
Let us bring total transparency in healthcare finance like any other industry; let the individuals pay directly through HSA; let the employers fund HSAs at least partially; let us have health insurance only for limited emergency (and catastrophic events) services as in auto-insurance.
Comment by William Hill January 5, 2008
I want to give a quick shout out to Healthcare-Blog.com for maintaining a fine piece of online real estate!
Perhaps a Universal Health System is the answer? Enjoy videos of various politicians speaking out on the Healthcare Crisis in the United States. Afterall, Healthcare Reform is the sinlge largest topic being debated in the ‘08 elections.
Watch Healthcare Crisis in Politics videos at:
http://www.rxpop.com/politics.asp
Do you think DTC (direct-to-consumer) pharmaceutical advertising is realted to the high costs of prescription drugs in the United States? Enjoy various drug commercial videos and let us know what you.
Watch Rx Commercials - Who’s Paying the Price? videos at:
http://www.rxpop.com/commercials.asp
If you’re not already, I urge you all to get involved and familiarize yourselves with our nation’s Healthcare Crisis. Things have got to change for the better soon!
Comment by Vid B January 11, 2008
Anything free will NOT work at all in our culture. If we have a good coverage, for any service we tend to ask only one question; how much do I need to pay? We don’t care whether it is a required service or if there is any cheaper alternative.
Why not we pay from our HSAs directly to the doctors/hospitals for general/routine services and have insurance only for catastrophic/emergency services. This will eliminate the need for millions of claims thereby improving the efficiency of the healthcare system. Here, the individuals have full control over money, health and choice.
What’s wrong with this approach? It is simpler and more efficient. After all, that is how auto-insurance works; we do not send claims for routine services like oil-change.
Comment by Duncan Scrymgeour January 21, 2008
Where will we get the trillions that will be necessary to ensure that health care is available to all of our citizens? The same place we are getting the trillions necessary to wage a fruitless war in Iraq, by taxing our children. However, unlike our foreign occupation, an imperialist effort with no clear outcome, fighting a war on our health care deficit has benefits that we all can realize. It is in an investment in our future as well as our duty to our country.
Here in California, we need to buy insurance to drive a car, something that all but a few of us do. It isn’t difficult then to grasp the idea that we will need to buy health insurance too. There is no question that funding health care will require sacrifices, but there are few efforts with such a worthwhile goal.