Congress returns this week & on Tuesday plans to pursue repealing ObamaCare - with a House vote on Wednesday plus instruction to House committees to start new healthcare legislation to replace ObamaCare. The GOP goal is to @ least defund ObamaCare through the appropriations process & pass legislation to remove the law's least popular components.
I can't imagine any healthcare insurance company CEO who has not started the process of going out of the business on their own terms as opposed to waiting for the government to put them out of business on their terms. Even the current cozy relationship between BO & AARP-United HealthGroup will see the insurer get stung when they are no longer needed - which will only be a few short years.
On a more positive note below is an open letter to Congressman Leonard Lance from one of his constituents who also is a subscriber to ReturnToExcellence.net that offers a specific proposal for solving our healthcare problems. For additional ideas - if you haven't read it already - but of a more libertarian view please go to ReturnToExcellence.net & click on The Solution To America's Healthcare Problems. If you agree with either of the positions described in these two documents you would be wise to let your voice be heard by your elected representatives & anyone else who will listen who can help.
Dear Congressman Lance,
As Congress deliberates the repeal of Obamacare, there will be calls to replace it with structural changes to our healthcare system that will bring about genuine reform. I would like to make a specific proposal.
First, the principal reason that healthcare in America is out of reach for most of the uninsured is the distorted market created by third-party payers. To illustrate the point, let us ask ourselves: which two fields of medicine have seen costs actually decline? The answer is cosmetic surgery and lasik surgery. It is no coincidence that these procedures are not normally covered by insurance.
I am not suggesting that healthcare insurance disappear, but patients do need to participate more meaningfully in their healthcare decisions and become better consumers.
What is stopping that? The answer, in part, is our tax code - especially for those who are not yet on Medicare. Yes, since the end of the Second World War, employers have been able to deduct the cost of healthcare insurance without making employees declare additional income. As a result, the healthcare industry in this country has blossomed. But the unintended result of this loophole has been that employers waste a tax shelter when they ask their employees to participate in their own healthcare costs. Over-utilization by insured people at the expense of uninsured people follows.
What two specific steps can you as a member of Congress take to fix the problem? First, co-sponsor HR25, The FairTax Act Of 2011. The FairTax treats employer-purchased healthcare insurance as "proxy buying." See Section 901(c) of the bill. In doing so, the FairTax eliminates the tax disparity between employer-purchased and individually-purchased healthcare insurance and removes the tax bias against individually-purchased plans.
Second, support a bill to make national excess-of-loss and stop-loss reinsurance available for all citizens and legal residents. Such a plan would be far less expensive than Obamacare, costing no more than Medicare alone costs today. Such a plan would assure that no citizen, or lawful resident, would face bankruptcy due to a healthcare catastrophe. Such a plan would give individuals responsibility for their own healthcare short of catastrophe.
The plan could offer preventative care on a first-dollar basis.
The plan could be loss-rated for the entire portfolio in order to protect individual privacy.
Those with valid Social Security numbers would receive vouchers to take to a licensed insurance agent or employer. If the proposed insured wants more comprehensive coverage, then he or she, or the employer, can purchase it. If the insured wants only government-provided excess-of-loss or stop-loss catastrophic protection, he or she would pay an administrative fee to a licensed insurance agent, who obtains a government-reinsured policy from a private carrier.
By eliminating tax bias and touching the private sector gently, Uncle Sam preserves the best of our world-leading healthcare system, including medical innovation, while making healthcare more affordable.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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