Save 15% or More on Brain Surgery

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:34:55 -0500

When voicing criticisms about the current health care bill before Congress, I’m often accused of being merely anti-Democrat and not part of the solution. That seems to be a common complaint against Republicans in general, that they are obstructionists, whining about matters rather than offering any solutions of their own. This is my attempt at joining the war of ideas over health care reform.

The first “Republican” plan I heard about was the The Patients’ Choice Act. I’m guessing it died in committee. The idea was:

“redirecting the $300 billion annual tax subsidy for employment-based health insurance to individuals in the form of refundable, advanceable tax credits. Families would get $5,700 a year and individuals $2,300 to buy insurance and invest in Health Savings Accounts.

Low-income Americans would get a supplemental debit card of up to $5,000 to help them purchase insurance and pay out-of-pocket costs. They would have an incentive to spend wisely since up to one-fourth of any unspent money in the accounts could be rolled over to the next year. The combination of the refundable tax credit and debit card gives lower-income Americans a way out of the Medicaid ghetto so they can have the dignity of private insurance.”

Source: WSJ

Intelligent reallocation of funds goes a long way towards solving the problem. Like most things with the federal government, there is already enough money rolling in that the government can “solve” many of our problems with inefficient government solutions. However, we would rather continue to fund another year in Afghanistan, missions to Mars, the invaluable Department of Agriculture, the overlapping duties of the Department of Homeland Security, etc. The Patients’ Choice Act proposes taking money already spent on health insurance by the Federal government and giving it directly to the people instead. How novel.

What else can we do? The government should let Americans shop across state lines. Somehow, Geico and Progressive can afford to pay for television ads all day every day on every cable station all across America. Why would auto insurance be such a profitable and competitive business as opposed to health insurance? No one has ever offered me 15 minutes to save 15% on health insurance while I’m watching Monday Night Football. Why is that? With so little competition, the American consumer obviously loses. Let Wal-Mart start selling health insurance and see what happens.

Why aren’t health care plans portable? Move across state lines? Change jobs? Sorry, you need to start over. How did our laws ever get so restrictive? We need to make these things portable. This isn’t possible today because different states mandate different levels of coverage. If you live in a state that requires insurance companies cover boner pills, fertility treatments, and eating disorders you are paying too much. There has to be some sort of a la carte structure where you can build your own policy specific to the individual’s insurance needs.

Why is the government already spending so much on health care? The government already makes up about 50% of the health care spending, which is the problem. The last thing that needs to happen in this debate on “reform” is to have the government take on a larger role. The cure for cancer is….. more cancer?

What got me on this track this morning was this article.

Should you decide to skip reading it, the central point is that making Americans purchase health insurance is not a moral imperative. Access to health care? Sure. Let’s make THAT happen. The author lists a few ways to help us move toward that goal.

Obama campaigned on the idea of moving the country to electronic medical records (and save boatloads of cash!). While this change wouldn’t actually save $80 million like he promised, I don’t think there’s any huge opposition to this idea. Sure, make it happen! What are we waiting for? Should this plan have been rolled out in the first 100 days of the Obama administration? Is this not a step in the right direction? Good use of stimulus money? Go go go.

Tort reform has been suggested by many, but I cautiously guard against limiting a citizen’s ability to sue the pants off someone for gross negligence. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on this issue.

The solutions to our health care crisis are far from simple, but not something beyond our ability. Sweeping change is obviously needed, and I hope our legislators can craft a policy that works for all of us. By “all of us” I mean Congress too. They should have to accept the same coverage they design for us.

Comments welcome….

SEC Championship halftime show. Alabama girl bests Florida boy...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:24:55 -0500

SEC Championship halftime show.

Alabama girl bests Florida boy at football skills challenge. I’m not sure who won the “paying attention” challenge. Both seem rather confused.

Jigga What? Facebook who?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:17:00 -0500

Facebook people I say, “Hell no”
(Hit ‘em up) Leave comments on your wall, yo
Check your status, get a life, bro
Poke me, send a smile, nice pic, ho.

What’s that? Friends by the truckload?
Who’s that? Friend request, too much, friend overload
Can we limit this to zip code?
Hey, quit your long posts, stop with the dumb quips
Nevermind all your chatter let me give a quick tip
Fall back, take a nap, go skinny dip.

I think you spend way too much time on Facebook.

Duck Sauce - aNYway Not sure about the song / video, but I do...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:56:21 -0400

Duck Sauce - aNYway

Not sure about the song / video, but I do know those dance moves are going to be added to my repertoire.

"It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop."

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:39:00 -0400

“It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.”

- Wisdom of Confucius

For All Your Holiday Shopping Needs

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:50:00 -0400

Unclebad’s Amazon Emporium

http://astore.amazon.com/uncl-20

Last year, holiday shoppers spent just over $4,000 at my store, netting me a cool $160. I used part of that money to purchase fortified wine for all my homeless buddies. Bottles of Wild Irish Rose were distributed, which immediately caused a violent drunken rage in a few people. Normally subdued Blue Love decided that his usual activity of naked bike riding was no longer fulfilling and he moved directly to assault and battery. This year I’ll spend the proceeds differently. Thanks in advance for shopping at my store.

UncleBad

Save 15% or More on Brain Surgery

SEC Championship halftime show. Alabama girl bests Florida boy...

Jigga What? Facebook who?

Duck Sauce - aNYway Not sure about the song / video, but I do...

"It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop."

For All Your Holiday Shopping Needs