Universal Health Insurance

Universal Health Insurance Proposal

• Established: Feb 7, 2007
• Recent changes
• Discussion group

Participants

• Moderator: jwalling

Problem

"Nearly 47 million Americans do not have health coverage, while four out of five uninsured Americans live in working families. Health premiums have increased more than four times faster than wages. And American businesses are forced to choose between providing health benefits or jobs."[1]

Objectives

• Exchange ideas on how to implement Universal Health Insurance for all United States residents.
• Develop a clear proposal that anyone can understand, not just policy wonkers, think tankers, and industry insiders.
• Promote the consensus proposal to decision makers.

Scope and methods

• Health insurance and health care are not the same thing. Duuh. (A frequent statement is, "The health care system is broken/in crisis/failing/etc." We have good health care diagnosis & treatment systems served by obsolete information systems that hide costs until the bill arrives. Health insurance is out of reach for a growing segment of the population.)
• Cost and access: This proposal addresses health care access, not costs. It is my belief that Universal Health Insurance will spread costs more equitably and, therefore, will make fees more rational. Rational fees are a precondition for open competition, which many say will reduce costs.
• Use the Discussion forum for back and forth.
• Formulate the consensus proposal below:

Proposal

• The United States needs universal health insurance (UHI), subsidized with federal funding. Governments (federal and state) would administer a basic health insurance plan available to all United States residents. The federal government would subsidize premiums from 100% to 0%, adjusted to incomes. State plans could join the federal plan. Insurance companies could offer custom plans to individuals or groups to supplement the basic plan.
• Benefits: Everyone would have access to affordable health insurance. Businesses could reduce employee costs and improve global competitiveness. Universal coverage would also help the overall economy, reduce strain from the uninsured on medical institutions, and spread insurance risks over the entire population.

Background

• Single-payer health care advocates and vested interests are in conflict over how to cover uninusured Americans and control costs. Compromise is essential to getting good results in the next 2-5 yrears. This proposal for UHI has the best chance to bring stakeholders together for the best outcome. It has the advantage of pooling resources with existing Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and employee insurance. Poor states could participate in offering basic health insurance plans and better attract new businesses. Small businesses could offer modest health insurance plans without draining capital resources. Larger businesses could continue to offer high end coverage to compete in the job market. Insurance companies would have a stablized market that would stay profitable. Medical providers would not have to shift costs from uniunsured patients to insured patients. Emergency rooms would have less pressure to provide primary care to the uninsured.

Debate

• A constructive debate will produce a better proposal. Any ideas that aim to produce universal access to health care are welcome.
• For back and forth, use the Discussion forum.
• Summarize below:

Resources

Discussion

• UHI Discussion Group Yahoo!

Advocates

• http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/domestic/healthcare
• http://www.esresearch.org/covering_america.php
• http://www.familiesusa.org/
• http://www.healthinsuranceinfo.net/ Consumer Rights by State
• http://www.policyalmanac.org/health/universal_health.shtml
• http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=1290

Wikipedia

• Fee-for-service
• Health care politics
• Health care system
• Health economics | Category
• Medicaid
• Medicare
• Public health
• Publicly-funded health care
• Single-payer health care
• Social health insurance
• Socialized medicine
• Universal health care

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