Now that the Republicans have shown that they intend to screw us, how about we consider something from the middle:
The American Health Care True Marketplace Act
The American Healthcare True Marketplace is designed around concerns voiced by all sides on this debate. Among the considerations are to provide coverage for all, lower prices thru free marketplace competition, and require fewer and better targeted taxes and regulations. The points of the plan, and their reasonings are:
1. Provide a single payer ‘basic life support’ system, designed to stabilize someone so they are then able look for more advanced care privately in the free marketplace.
The intent of this provision is to ensure that everyone has access to basic life sustaining services regardless of position or ability to pay.
2. Employers may no longer offer health insurance plans to their employees. All insurance must be obtained on the free marketplace.
The intention of this provision is: Employer paid plans remove large numbers of people from the marketplace pool. To ensure a true free marketplace plan that benefits all, everyone must have equal access to the same marketplace products.
a. Employers may offer financial incentives to their employees towards the purchase of health insurance on the free marketplace.
Intent: To provide a means for employers to offer healthcare benefits in order to attract and keep valuable employees.
i. Such incentives are tax deductible by the employer. Self Explanatory.
ii. Such incentives shall be considered income by the employee and taxed at 1%. These taxes are to be placed into the hereby established Free Marketplace Fund.
Intent: A true free marketplace requires everyone to have access to the same products at the same price. This tiny ‘Cadillac tax’ will help others in the marketplace who are disadvantaged by not being employed. More discussion follows.
iii. Employers may negotiate discounts with insurance companies for their employees. Employers may not demand their employees buy specific insurance products, but may offer such discounts if negotiated percentages of their employees agree to buy the same product.
Intent: To provide further benefit opportunities from employers to employees without needlessly restricting or regulating the free marketplace.
3. ALL health insurance is to be available and sold nationwide on the free marketplace. Healthcare and health insurance are hereby considered National plans not State plans.
The intent is: 1 Further increase the size of the free marketplace to take advantage of the economies of scale, and 2. To ensure equal access by all to the same products.
4. All insurance is required to meet ‘non-profit’ standards.
Intent: Every penny put into a shareholder’s pocket is a penny someone paid for healthcare and didn’t get. Shareholder payouts are a silent tax put upon health care consumers. This act seeks to reduce or eliminate most taxes, including hidden taxes.
5. An insurance plan offering reasonable office copays and 70/30 coinsurance shall be considered a ‘standardized plan’. A standardized plan’s premiums and deductibles may not exceed 15% of a person’s taxable income. Any standardized plan costs above 15% of income shall be considered at their ‘out of pocket maximum’ and subsidized by the Free Marketplace Fund.
Intent: To provide lower costs on a standardized plan that is available to all.
a. Insurance companies may make non-standardized plans available on the free marketplace.
Intent: Allows those who are able and wish so to purchase upgraded plans on the free marketplace
6. All doctors and facilities are required to accept standardized plans. This does not preclude doctors and facilities from establishing and accepting independent cash prices.
Intent: To again provide health care for all while keeping a free marketplace baseline.
7. All medical providers and facilities are to provide written cost estimates for all procedures and treatments offered. These prices are to remain valid for 30 days to facilitate patient ‘comparison shopping’ among providers. Actual costs billed may not exceed 10% of the estimate. Unforeseen (and thus unestimated) costs may only exceed 10% of the actual cost to deliver that particular service or item.
Intent: To provide financial transparency and facilitate the ability to comparison shop procedures and materials, and to bring about the cost reductions that accompany free market competition.
8. All governmental agencies shall negotiate medical and pharmaceutical prices for their patients. These prices shall be considered ‘benchmarks’ for private insurance coverages.
Intent: To put to use the negotiating power of our governmental caregivers (expressly Medicare and Veteran’s Administration) to provide free market competition among medical and pharmaceutical providers for those services and the lowered costs that brings.
9. At the outset of this program, there will be no exclusions for pre-existing conditions. People will have 5 years to obtain insurance under this act. At the end of that five year period, insurance companies may exclude pre-existing conditions for those who did not obtain insurance during that introductory time period.
Intent: The intent of insurance to spread the cost of a pooled risk. Thus all insurance, even in a free market, is by its very nature a socialist activity and requires maximum participation to even out costs and risks among various groups. This encourages individuals to join that risk pool early without actually requiring them to do so or otherwise penalizing them for not joining.
10. Insurance companies may sell employer-style ‘family discounts’ if all members under a head of household, regardless of age, are enrolled in the same plan.
Intent: To assist families in obtaining affordable healthcare and providing companies a means to market their services to families.
11. Corporations whose average executive compensation is more than 100 times their employee’s average compensation will be taxed 10% on compensation exceeding that limit. These monies are to be placed in the Free Marketplace Fund.
a. Monies a company spends providing healthcare to its employees may include that cost in determining worker / executive compensation.
Intent: To promote income equality between the executive and worker sectors, and to fund the Free Marketplace Fund thru the equivalent of a “greed tax”.
12. Free marketplace funds are to be used to finance Basic Life Support and Standardized plan subsidies.
Intent: To help facilitate affordable healthcare that covers everyone.
13. This act does not affect Medicare or the Veteran’s Administration, outside of authorizing these agencies to negotiate prices and set benchmarks.
14. INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NO INSURANCE OR MEANS TO PAY WILL NOT RECEIVE SERVICES BEYOND BASIC LIFE SUPPORT SERVICES.
Intent: Uninsured patients are a large reason medical costs are so high. People who take advantage of the system by not joining the shared risk pool should not enjoy that pool’s resources in their time of need. Using Free Marketplace pooled funds and services without participating in the marketplace constitutes a tax upon those who do join the marketplace. This eliminates that hidden tax and provides another incentive for people to join the pool while not requiring them to do so.
15. Those receiving Free Marketplace Funds due to disability or unemployment must produce a certificate of unemployability signed by 2 doctors, or show proof of attempts to gain employment, to receive Free Marketplace Funds.
Intent: To keep the lazy from benefitting from the shared risk pool they do not contribute to.
16. State and federal legislators and executives shall be required to participate in this plan and may not receive any other coverages not offered on the free marketplace.
Intent: To prevent governing bodies from taking unfair advantages not available to the people, to ensure their participation in the free marketplace, and to ensure their actions are in the best interests of the people.
The American Health Care True Marketplace Act
The American Healthcare True Marketplace is designed around concerns voiced by all sides on this debate. Among the considerations are to provide coverage for all, lower prices thru free marketplace competition, and require fewer and better targeted taxes and regulations. The points of the plan, and their reasonings are:
1. Provide a single payer ‘basic life support’ system, designed to stabilize someone so they are then able look for more advanced care privately in the free marketplace.
The intent of this provision is to ensure that everyone has access to basic life sustaining services regardless of position or ability to pay.
2. Employers may no longer offer health insurance plans to their employees. All insurance must be obtained on the free marketplace.
The intention of this provision is: Employer paid plans remove large numbers of people from the marketplace pool. To ensure a true free marketplace plan that benefits all, everyone must have equal access to the same marketplace products.
a. Employers may offer financial incentives to their employees towards the purchase of health insurance on the free marketplace.
Intent: To provide a means for employers to offer healthcare benefits in order to attract and keep valuable employees.
i. Such incentives are tax deductible by the employer. Self Explanatory.
ii. Such incentives shall be considered income by the employee and taxed at 1%. These taxes are to be placed into the hereby established Free Marketplace Fund.
Intent: A true free marketplace requires everyone to have access to the same products at the same price. This tiny ‘Cadillac tax’ will help others in the marketplace who are disadvantaged by not being employed. More discussion follows.
iii. Employers may negotiate discounts with insurance companies for their employees. Employers may not demand their employees buy specific insurance products, but may offer such discounts if negotiated percentages of their employees agree to buy the same product.
Intent: To provide further benefit opportunities from employers to employees without needlessly restricting or regulating the free marketplace.
3. ALL health insurance is to be available and sold nationwide on the free marketplace. Healthcare and health insurance are hereby considered National plans not State plans.
The intent is: 1 Further increase the size of the free marketplace to take advantage of the economies of scale, and 2. To ensure equal access by all to the same products.
4. All insurance is required to meet ‘non-profit’ standards.
Intent: Every penny put into a shareholder’s pocket is a penny someone paid for healthcare and didn’t get. Shareholder payouts are a silent tax put upon health care consumers. This act seeks to reduce or eliminate most taxes, including hidden taxes.
5. An insurance plan offering reasonable office copays and 70/30 coinsurance shall be considered a ‘standardized plan’. A standardized plan’s premiums and deductibles may not exceed 15% of a person’s taxable income. Any standardized plan costs above 15% of income shall be considered at their ‘out of pocket maximum’ and subsidized by the Free Marketplace Fund.
Intent: To provide lower costs on a standardized plan that is available to all.
a. Insurance companies may make non-standardized plans available on the free marketplace.
Intent: Allows those who are able and wish so to purchase upgraded plans on the free marketplace
6. All doctors and facilities are required to accept standardized plans. This does not preclude doctors and facilities from establishing and accepting independent cash prices.
Intent: To again provide health care for all while keeping a free marketplace baseline.
7. All medical providers and facilities are to provide written cost estimates for all procedures and treatments offered. These prices are to remain valid for 30 days to facilitate patient ‘comparison shopping’ among providers. Actual costs billed may not exceed 10% of the estimate. Unforeseen (and thus unestimated) costs may only exceed 10% of the actual cost to deliver that particular service or item.
Intent: To provide financial transparency and facilitate the ability to comparison shop procedures and materials, and to bring about the cost reductions that accompany free market competition.
8. All governmental agencies shall negotiate medical and pharmaceutical prices for their patients. These prices shall be considered ‘benchmarks’ for private insurance coverages.
Intent: To put to use the negotiating power of our governmental caregivers (expressly Medicare and Veteran’s Administration) to provide free market competition among medical and pharmaceutical providers for those services and the lowered costs that brings.
9. At the outset of this program, there will be no exclusions for pre-existing conditions. People will have 5 years to obtain insurance under this act. At the end of that five year period, insurance companies may exclude pre-existing conditions for those who did not obtain insurance during that introductory time period.
Intent: The intent of insurance to spread the cost of a pooled risk. Thus all insurance, even in a free market, is by its very nature a socialist activity and requires maximum participation to even out costs and risks among various groups. This encourages individuals to join that risk pool early without actually requiring them to do so or otherwise penalizing them for not joining.
10. Insurance companies may sell employer-style ‘family discounts’ if all members under a head of household, regardless of age, are enrolled in the same plan.
Intent: To assist families in obtaining affordable healthcare and providing companies a means to market their services to families.
11. Corporations whose average executive compensation is more than 100 times their employee’s average compensation will be taxed 10% on compensation exceeding that limit. These monies are to be placed in the Free Marketplace Fund.
a. Monies a company spends providing healthcare to its employees may include that cost in determining worker / executive compensation.
Intent: To promote income equality between the executive and worker sectors, and to fund the Free Marketplace Fund thru the equivalent of a “greed tax”.
12. Free marketplace funds are to be used to finance Basic Life Support and Standardized plan subsidies.
Intent: To help facilitate affordable healthcare that covers everyone.
13. This act does not affect Medicare or the Veteran’s Administration, outside of authorizing these agencies to negotiate prices and set benchmarks.
14. INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NO INSURANCE OR MEANS TO PAY WILL NOT RECEIVE SERVICES BEYOND BASIC LIFE SUPPORT SERVICES.
Intent: Uninsured patients are a large reason medical costs are so high. People who take advantage of the system by not joining the shared risk pool should not enjoy that pool’s resources in their time of need. Using Free Marketplace pooled funds and services without participating in the marketplace constitutes a tax upon those who do join the marketplace. This eliminates that hidden tax and provides another incentive for people to join the pool while not requiring them to do so.
15. Those receiving Free Marketplace Funds due to disability or unemployment must produce a certificate of unemployability signed by 2 doctors, or show proof of attempts to gain employment, to receive Free Marketplace Funds.
Intent: To keep the lazy from benefitting from the shared risk pool they do not contribute to.
16. State and federal legislators and executives shall be required to participate in this plan and may not receive any other coverages not offered on the free marketplace.
Intent: To prevent governing bodies from taking unfair advantages not available to the people, to ensure their participation in the free marketplace, and to ensure their actions are in the best interests of the people.
