Health insurance premium deductible
Health Care
- The American Health Care System: Sick, not Dead
Most Americans would agree that our health care delivery system has problems. There are some out there who feel it is completely broken. As a physician providing care in our health care system, and as a physician who has travelled extensively observing other countries health care systems, I feel that I am uniquely qualified to diagnose it as sick, not dead.
There is no gold standard for the delivery of health care in our world. The universal health care coverage model that is displayed in multiple variations throughout the world, e.g. England, Canada, most Western European countries, is broken also. The upside to these types of programs is that everyone can access care. The downside is that very few can access care in a timely fashion. True emergencies are taken care of expeditiously, but patients needing non-emergency care and surgery often suffer with their symptoms for long periods of time because of the long waiting periods. It is not uncommon, for Canadians, Brits and Western Europeans to seek care in the US and pay for it out of there own pockets; instead of suffering the long waiting periods in their native countries. In our home state of Montana, the market for Canadian patients wanting total joint replacements is so lucrative that it has funded a state of the art total joint replacement center in Kallispell. Proponents argue that universal coverage plans do not ration care, but they DO by delaying or restricting access to treatment. There simply aren't enough resources allocated in these programs to take care of the patient load in a timely fashion. Some health care models in Western Europe simply close up shop when the government funding runs out. In Scandinavian countries, this is often as early as mid to late summer. Universal health care has been tried and exists in several permutations, but it simply hasn't worked. Thinking that our government could run it better, with better access to care is naive.
The American health care system is the world's gold standard for quality and sophistication of medical care. When foreigners with means are ill, they come to the US to get care. We need to be proud of this aspect of our health care system, and not throw the baby out with the bath water. Our system is flawed and does need to be fixed, but lets try some common sense solutions.
1. Develop Inexpensive Basic Coverage Packages
Some would call providing very basic, inexpensive health plans rationing care, but rationed health care is better than no health care. These basic plans should include preventative care, comprehensive medical treatment within limits, and emergency care. We are going to have to start making some tough decisions. Aunt Sally is 90 years old, and is on the decline, should we be spending valuable health care dollars to put her on expensive dialysis to prolong her life for a few weeks? Or should we vaccinate an entire small towns worth of children to prevent disease? In my mind it seems an easy answer. Spend the money where it is going to have the biggest impact. These type of discussion invariable end up tugging at heart strings. These very basic plans would and have to exclude expensive, rare treatments like transplants, experimental care, aggressive care for the terminally ill, etc. We simply can't have it both ways: every treatment in the world available to everyone, and keep the cost of health care down. Of course, those with the means, could purchase more comprehensive plans, that cover every health care option. Many would argue this is not fair. True, but, life is not fair.
2. Make Health Insurance Deductible
Health insurance could easily be made more affordable by making it personally and corporately tax deductible. At least we would all be paying for or insurance with pre-tax instead of post-tax dollars. This would save the average family 10-15% on there health care cost, and potentially increase employers ability to provide health care benefits to their employees.
3. Develop Risk Sharing Pools
Healthier people who avoid bad habits and risk taking behaviours should be in a separate insurance pool, then their chain-smoking, base jumping peers. People who lead healthy lifestyles should be rewarded for keeping themselves healthy. People who use drugs, smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol, or engage in high risk activities such as sky diving, base jumping, ice climbing, etc are at higher risk. Therefore, they should pay a premium for it. There are certainly precedents for this. In the life insurance and disability insurance business, these activities make you less insurable and therefore result in high premiums. Why not health insurance? In Austria, where skiing is a way of life for many, snow skiing and mountaineering are considered high risk activities. Therefore, Austrians who want to be rescued if they get into trouble and receive health care if needed, have to pay an additional fee above the universal health care all Austrians receive.
4. Good Samaritan Law
Most of us are familiar with the Good Samaritan Law. If you come upon an injured person, and try to help them, you cannot be sued for it. Why not extend these laws to health care providers. Many physicians, especially retired ones, would gladly volunteer there time at free clinics, but they can't. What's stopping them? Malpractice Insurance. Malpractice Insurance premiums have simply gone out of control in my states. In order to see patients in a free clinic setting, a physician would have to have malpractice insurance. Why would a physician want to pay $20,000-$100,000 a year, to volunteer their time to see patients in a free clinic setting? They wouldn't. Extend the Good Samaritan Law to cover health care providers in this setting, and suddenly you have another resource for the uninsured and underinsured to obtain health care.
Our health care system can be improved, don't be led down the primrose path of universal health care. Many countries throughout the world have universal health care systems. If they worked as well as Hilliary would like us to believe, why do so many patients from those universal health care systems end up coming to the US for care? Be honest with yourself. Do you really think the government could do a better job of running health care, than the private sector? Once again, I would submit to you that the answer to this is obvious.
Mike Huckabee believes in these common sense solutions to our health care problems. Mike Huckabee would have you do everything you could to keep yourself healthy and try to prevent degeneration of your body and joints. When it does inevitably happen, he would like you to have plenty of choices and access to the care you need in a timely fashion. Hilliary and the democrats want you to have to wait two years to get your knee replaced.
Huckabee for President: Finally a Good President from Arkansas!
-Michelle Donaldson, Neal Donaldson
Livingston, Montana
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