Quote:
Originally Posted by Arles
While a registered democrat, I consider myself more conservative when it comes to health care and economic policy. instead of a single payer, here's what I would try to do:
1. Fully or partially subsidize health care plans for people making under a certain amount (say $100K) who don't have employer provided health care. Maybe under 50K it is 100%, 75% under 75K and 50% under 100K. The government would just give them a tax credit that could be used for their premium costs per year (basically act like the employer).
2. Setup better exchanges for small business owners with some % subsidies for premiums there as well.
If you focus on getting coverage for people who don't have it, then you can look at finding ways to reduce the cost in certain areas. The prescription drug thing is a tough one. Currently the US pays 3-times more for the same drug in Europe, but that extra money helps fund research and innovation. There could be a massive hit to R&D if we capped prices like Europe - but I'm certainly open to ideas here.
I'm also not sure we can do a ton with overall cost given the number of unhealthy people/lifestyles we have and our expectation of service. If we were willing to wait 3-5 months more for most elective surgeries, that might help. If we lost a lot of choice for specialists/doctors (like in other countries), that may help too. I'm just not sure this country has the stomach for those type of changes.
If I waved a magic wand and we had the health care system in Canada here tomorrow - there would be riots in the streets when people saw their tax bill, how long they had to wait for surgeries/care and how restricted the list of doctors/specialists would be.
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I agree and disagree. I think that the Sanders and company plan may be too extreme (government mandated single payer), but I think the best moderate plans allow anyone to join medicare. Even in countries that provide free healthcare, people still have private insurance. A public option will force private companies to compete with better coverage at more affordable rates. The other big necessity is allowing medicare to negotiate the cost of medicine. The bloat in our system is the runway cost drugs hand in hand with the huge profits being sucked out of the system by insurers. Cutting those cost substantially would make a big dent in the problems in the system.