The best ideas on health care I've heard so far
It’s from a while back, and a lot has happened since it was written, but this is one of the best ideas for health care reform I’ve seen.
The author, Charles Krauthammer, argues the bill that is currently being (or has been? I’m on vacation) passed is severely flawed and suggests and defends three better ways to go about it. Essentially, health care reform should make the system simpler, not more complex (as the current 2,000+ bill would do). One suggestion, which is so blatantly obvious that I don’t know why it hasn’t been done already, is to allow competition within the insurance industry across state lines. From the article: Some states have very few health insurers. Rates are high. So why not allow interstate competition? After all, you can buy oranges across state lines. If you couldn’t, oranges would be extremely expensive in Wisconsin, especially in winter. And the answer to the resulting high Wisconsin orange prices wouldn’t be the establishment of a public option — a federally run orange-growing company in Wisconsin — to introduce “competition.” It would be to allow Wisconsin residents to buy Florida oranges. Exactly. I really believe there needs to be health care reform. But I don’t think the way to do it is to have the government to step in, get bigger and move one step closer to a socialized state. The opposite needs to happen: the government needs to enable free market economics to do its thing and then get out of the way. Thoughts? Point? Counter point? Let’s hear it in the comments. Image courtesy of here.Tags: Politics
December 28th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I’m curious what Paul M. thinks of this idea?
December 28th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I went to get an ultrasound done several weeks ago and for once paid attention (sort of) to what I was signing. I filled out one form of my medical history and my family history of certain things, 1 form for insurance, and 3 forms for privacy policy. The first two make sense. One affects the procedure, the second ensures somebody is going to pay for it, the other three seem useless to me. I’m all for privacy, but what difference does ME signing a bunch of forms saying THEY’RE not going to blab about me do? As far as I can tell these forms are required for two reasons: litigation, and government. As you said, it seems to me that a 2,000+ pg bill will increase rather than decrease the expense of dealing with both of those problems. I think the reason the interstate competition idea hasn’t gotten very far is because the people that are opposed to federal government health care control, traditionally stand up for a state’s right to have whatever laws it wants, regardless of how stupid the laws are. It appears said people are straining at gnats and swallowing camels on this one though.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
But why do the states want to limit competition? Is it that they’re getting major kickbacks from insurance companies operating within their respective states? It just seems so frustratingly obvious – and inexpensive – to implement.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I would guess it’s a combination of kickbacks and thinking they’re acting in the best interest of people, like most other things. For instance, some states require insurance to have a specific level of maternity coverage. Well that’s nice if you’re a stupid person who doesn’t find out what an insurance policy actually covers before you get pregnant, or an unlucky person who bets she won’t get pregnant and then does. It doesn’t make sense if you’re a 75 year old woman, or a 27 year old man who’s insurance is more expensive because the legislature legislated for stupid and unlucky people. I’m sure that’s an oversimplified view of reality, but that’s how I understand it.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Yeah I’m afraid the state competition thing would be considered too “complicated” to actually implement, even though I am all for it. I also worry when I travel how good my insurance will cover in other states. Does that guy have more info on how to implement across state line competition?
December 28th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
I’m not sure how it would be complicated. Please explain your thinking as I’m curious as to what you meant. Seems like this could be a golden opportunity for an online-based health insurance company.Not sure if he has more info. All I’ve read is the article I linked to. If you find more, will you post a comment?
December 28th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
The link isen’t working for me.Surely not complicated in theory, but like Talyn stated some states have different requirements than others and probably a lot of the companies would not _want_ to compete if some of these things are in place. It just seems to me (being a cynic) like there would be too much red tape to cut through to allow opening this in a perfect world. But that’s why I was wondering if the link had more info on how it could be done efficiently.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Sorry about the link. Should be fixed now. Let me know what you think of the article.I see what you mean about red tape. Perhaps the goal of the bill should be to remove the red tape instead of create more of it. :)I just read the book What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis (great read) and I think there could be a great opportunity for a national, online health insurer to figure out the logistics and make a customizable plan for people – available anywhere and without the same overhead as other insurance companies.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:55 am
Thanks for the link. It’s true about the employer sponsored plans issue. Being self employed and/or working for companies where I did not receive health insurance – and this was before the downturn where companies were getting rid of insurance – I was already used to finding health insurance on my own. I think with more and more people getting jobs where health insurance is much less or non-existant can actually help turn the tide on that one. The whole state line thing is one reason that Apple never got a group insurance package for the Apple Consultants Network which I belong to. Instead the best they could come up with is an agency we could call to help us find local plans (which I could and did already do myself online) It’s also too bad that nothing up until now has been done in the state. There were rumblings of a Utah ultra-small business group plan and/or a plan through the SLC Chamber of Commerce.