Health Care

Our health care system is not perfect, but it provides the best care in the world.  Some people focus only on the cost, without consideration for the quality. The best measure of quality is what we can expect if we encounter serious illness or injury.  In this regard, the United States exceeds that of any other nation. While we do need reform, we do not need a government takeover of the health care industry. Common sense should dictate that we look for solutions that address affordability and access to health care.

Portability:

Change the federal law so there is no time limit on COBRA. COBRA allows employees to continue to purchase health insurance at the group rate after leaving an employer. Currently, employers only need to offer COBRA for eighteen months after an employee separates. This is a simple reform that would solve the portability problem for the majority of Americans who get their health insurance through work. This common sense proposal would receive overwhelming bi-partisan support.

Pre-existing Conditions:

Fair health care reform must address the issue of pre-existing conditions. A simple legislative solution that could solve the problem is to pass legislation requiring all health insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions as long as the individual has been covered continuously for a period of a reasonable length of time. It is important to require continuous coverage on the part of the insured in order to avoid the problem Massachusetts is experiencing with the legislation they enacted,  In Massachusetts, many people are waiting until they get sick to sign up for insurance. After getting the treatment they need, they then drop the insurance. This is the equivalent to getting casualty insurance for your home when a fire starts. It is unfair to those citizens who pay for health insurance continuously. Their premiums will skyrocket to cover people who simply take advantage of the system.

Fair Tax Treatment:

Federal tax code allows Type C Corporations to deduct the full cost of health care expenses from taxable income. Individuals do not receive equal treatment. Only the health care expenses in excess of 2% of gross income are deductible. This is not fair and would be another common sense change that Congress could pass with bi-partisan support.

Health Savings Accounts:

Anyone who has been to an “All you can eat buffet” understands when something is “free” you consume more of it than you would if you were paying out of pocket for each item or service. Our current health care system does not encourage consumers to shop for better prices or carefully evaluate the necessity for a service since health care is “free.” Nothing is ever “free.” In the case of health care, it is being paid for by someone other than the person who is consuming the services: the employer or the tax payer.

We need to involve the consumer in making intelligent choices regarding health care spending. Millions of individual consumers looking over hospital bills and asking questions about the cost of particular services or drugs will eliminate fraud, create competition, and put pressure on providers to reduce costs and increase quality. One way to do that is with more use of Health Savings Accounts.

Health Savings Accounts should be available as an option to everyone, including people on government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The government would provide each recipient of these programs a fixed amount of money each month which could only be used to purchase a health insurance plan that fits his/her needs. Instead of the government simply writing the check, the consumer would now be shopping for insurance, thereby ensuring more careful expenditure of tax dollars. This brings choice and competition, which can result in cost savings and better quality.

Insurance Competition:

The health insurance marketplace cannot work unless health insurance companies compete for clients. Currently, states regulate insurance and interstate competition does not exist because of the McCarran-Ferguson Act passed by Congress in 1945. This act gives states the power to retain their regulatory authority over insurance.

Therefore, if you live in Illinois, the state requires you to buy your insurance from a company licensed to sell insurance in Illinois. Illinois has also passed many health insurance laws that regulate what must be included in all health insurance policies written by insurance companies operating in Illinois. These legal “mandates” drive up the cost of health insurance compared to other states with less mandates.

There are groups who are exempt from Illinois mandates. These are large companies who choose to “self-insure” and are only regulated by federal ERISA laws. They choose what to insure and what not to insure, instead of relying on the State of Illinois to make those decisions for them.  Federal legislation could be enacted to allow individuals and small businesses the same freedom of choice large employers get under the ERISA laws.

For more information on the subject you can go to: http://insurance.freeadvice.com/insurance_help.php/108_121_135.htm

Transparent Pricing:

Our free-market system cannot work unless consumers can make intelligent choices. We should require health care providers to provide a price list for services and allow consumer groups to rate the quality of care. This rating would be similar to Edmonds providing useful information on automobile performance.

Limit Ambulance Chasing:

The cost of health care has gone down in states like Texas and Indiana, where common sense legal reforms have been implemented. It is time for Congress to stand up to the special interest groups preventing this reform and pass reasonable limits on pain and suffering.

Socialized Medicine:

The public option is NOT an option. It would add a minimum of a trillion dollars to our deficit and does not really address the problems with our health care system today. There are real concerns about how quality would be affected if the government becomes the only health care provider.