Posted by
Andrews on Monday, August 31, 2009 3:08:46 PM
I have decided that health care reform is moving too slowly. The president has stated that this is an "emergency", various Democrats have told me we have a "crisis", the Demo-shills who invade TH from time to time tell me there are people dying in the streets because of health insurers' "rationing" of care. (See "
Envy And Analogy") But all the Democrats in congress are doing is shuffling around a few plans so that they don't have to commit to one and lose their seats in 2010, shuffling from plan to plan so no one can pin them down on specifics and actually engage in a debate about the specifics (see "
AARP Proves They Are Partisan Hacks and other Thoughts on Health Care Reform", "
Can Anyone Make Sense of This?" and "
Confirmation, Yet Again").
So, since the Democrats have told me how dire our situation has become, but have been unable to do anything themselves, I am proposing my own medical plan, a comprehensive solution which will solve all our problems. Not only that, but it will provide absolutely universal coverage!
First, I am eliminating all tax benefits for employers who provide health insurance for employees. As this has caused employees to expect insurance to cover everything, they have become unconcerned with cost, and thus prices have skyrocketed. (see "
High Cost of Medical Care")
Second, I would stop government regulation of medical facilities, attempts to prevent new technologies from being bought without approval, or to prevent hospitals form opening without approval. These anti-competitive practices have killed many cost saving innovations.(See "
Government Efficiency")
Third, I would prevent states from granting effective insurance monopolies. There will be no regulation of insurance, neither restricting who can provide insurance, nor telling them what they must provide. To make insurance affordable and responsive, I would allow insurers absolute freedom of contract and allow buyers to shop around, even in other states. No more regulation of prices, services provided, nothing. I know many think this would result in insurers "gouging" customers, but our current semi-monopoly seems more likely to do that than free nationwide competition. After all, who treats you better? Your local utility monopoly or a competitor with no protections? Think about it this way, Domino's and Papa John's have offered many "buy one get one free" deals to get my business. When was the last time you saw a "buy one kilowatt get the next half price"? Monopolies with legal protections are not responsive and do not work int he interest of consumers. Those facing competition do.
Beyond that, I would strongly encourage each state to enact one simple legal reform, that is allowing the ironclad assignment of liability in contracts. That one reform alone will end up doing more good than all the nominal "tort reforms" in the world. (See "
The Problem With Tort Reform" and "
Red Herring") After all, the entire liability lottery started when those promoting a "social insurance" theory destroy the law of contracts. if we restore that, it will have the same effect as years and years of tort reform.
Now, at this point, I am sure many are asking "But what about universal coverage? This is supposed to be a universal plan!"
And that is the brilliant bit of my plan. You see, in addition to ending government regulation of insurance, breaking the connection between employment and insurance, ending government meddling in medical business, and reforming tort law, I have a simple answer to getting every American covered by insurance.
We print up an insurance card for every citizen int he nation and mail it to them!
Now, granted, this won't actually pay for any services, nor will it provide any health care, but
EVERY AMERICAN W ILL HAVE INSURANCE COVERAGE!
Some will argue that this is dishonest, that giving everyone an insurance card that pays for nothing is not the same as giving insurance, but I would argue it is no different than what the Democrats plan. They promise "insurance" for everyone, but really plan to give us all bare-bones, rationed care (see "
Who Will Decide") with services provided only when they meet some government cost-effectiveness guidelines. If they can sell some warmed-over NHS as "insurance" surely my "insurance" is no worse.
So, there you have it, my plan. And, unlike the Democrat plan, I manage to give every American insurance at a cost of about $2 per person or less, all while actually creating a much more healthy, robust and competitive health care sector!
What's not to love?