firesong
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
Posts: 136
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Post by firesong on Jun 21, 2012 16:35:46 GMT -5
I just spoke to an insurance professional, who advised me they had individual health care policies for as little as $179 a month. I asked him if I wanted to create a group policy with 350,000,000 members, would it be reasonable to assume the cost would be between $100 and $150 per individual, per month. He said that would be absolutely reasonable.
The cost for a year per individual would be (we'll go with $150) $1800. For 350,000,000(the population of the US + approximately 10%), the total cost would be $630 billion. Currently, for Medicare and Medicaid alone, the US spends about $970 billion.
If we tossed Obamacare in the trash, where it belongs, and just had the government purchase 350,000,000 individual policies, there would be basic healthcare coverage for everyone, including all current Medicare and Medicaid recipients, along with our disabled veterans; essentially it would be enough to insure every single human inside the US borders, legal, illegal, tourist, etc, and would still save us about $340 billion over the cost of Medicare/Medicaid alone.
The cost would be determined by a competitive bid and we'd have a hard number, so we'd know "what's in it" well before we paid for it, and it would then be up to the insurance companies to control medical costs. It would also be budgetable, so no surprises, or overruns...
This is truly universal healthcare... based on capitalism, not socialism.
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User
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
His Wholeyness The Caterpillaric Popo
Posts: 146
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Post by User on Jun 21, 2012 16:37:22 GMT -5
Communist
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firesong
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
Posts: 136
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Post by firesong on Jun 21, 2012 18:38:32 GMT -5
Naw... unrepentant capitalist...
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User
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
His Wholeyness The Caterpillaric Popo
Posts: 146
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Post by User on Jun 21, 2012 22:01:37 GMT -5
Wrong. Anything I disagree with is socialism.
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Post by watershield on Jun 21, 2012 22:08:21 GMT -5
Why is it the role of the government to cover the cost of the premiums? Put a wage cap on it, any one under x dollars income gets it for free. Anyone over x dollars pays a percentage based on earnings.
In BC, if you earn less than $25,000 it's free. At the most a family pays $118.00/ month
But then again, in the States, even if it was free, you'd have people demanding to have the right to opt out, charges of government interference with individual rights, just another twist on Obamacare, or just finding a reason to bitch and complain
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Post by Tofu DeBeast on Jun 21, 2012 22:19:54 GMT -5
What's the deductible on that $179 a month plan? Cheap plans are often terrible in what they cover. In what I've seen, Medicare and Medicaid both have much better coverage than the typical private plan.
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Post by watershield on Jun 21, 2012 22:28:45 GMT -5
That and a few other things crossed my mind as well. What's the premium for various age groups. Individual rate vs family rate. Maximum annual coverage...IE: $500 / yr for Dental and $250 for eye care in the first 5 years of the policy. What are the exclusions?
When I left banking I was forced to look at coverage for the family. For what you pay compared to the maximum you can claim, in most cases it's cheaper to set that money aside in a savings account.
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Post by StormInateacup on Jun 21, 2012 22:38:11 GMT -5
Wrong. Anything I disagree with is socialism. Today the admin team is giving out stickers. This is yours.
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Post by watershield on Jun 21, 2012 22:42:42 GMT -5
Wow! High honors! We should celibrate such a distinction..
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Post by StormInateacup on Jun 21, 2012 22:53:15 GMT -5
Wow! High honors! We should celibrate such a distinction.. You're special. You get a hat.
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Post by watershield on Jun 21, 2012 22:55:01 GMT -5
lol...love old jokes
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Post by StormInateacup on Jun 21, 2012 23:17:50 GMT -5
Thought you would.
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Post by rscott on Jun 22, 2012 1:44:43 GMT -5
trash
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firesong
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
Posts: 136
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Post by firesong on Jun 22, 2012 6:53:48 GMT -5
Why is it the role of the government to cover the cost of the premiums? Put a wage cap on it, any one under x dollars income gets it for free. Anyone over x dollars pays a percentage based on earnings. In BC, if you earn less than $25,000 it's free. At the most a family pays $118.00/ month But then again, in the States, even if it was free, you'd have people demanding to have the right to opt out, charges of government interference with individual rights, just another twist on Obamacare, or just finding a reason to bitch and complain Yep... you're probably right. I offered it as a comparison to the insanity of Obamacare, to show that universal health care is not only possible, but easily affordable, and doesn't require 2000+ pages of pork, ideology, and bullshit...
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firesong
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
Posts: 136
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Post by firesong on Jun 22, 2012 7:09:05 GMT -5
That and a few other things crossed my mind as well. What's the premium for various age groups. Individual rate vs family rate. Maximum annual coverage...IE: $500 / yr for Dental and $250 for eye care in the first 5 years of the policy. What are the exclusions? When I left banking I was forced to look at coverage for the family. For what you pay compared to the maximum you can claim, in most cases it's cheaper to set that money aside in a savings account. Under my proposed solution, it would be a basic, HMO type individual coverage, but with full major medical that would use a scalable deductible depending on income; it would be a safety net policy to cover every inhabitant of the US. If a business or individual wanted to upgrade, they would be able to do so at a reasonable rate. There are plenty of things that would need to be worked out, but it's at least feasible...
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