Another one of those "modest proposals"

[woodwrite]

The policy issue of providing universal health care to all Americans will almost surely be misplayed, botched and will end up costing WAY too much. How come? Too many middle men, for one thing,.... hospital management companies, Big Pharma and (most insideous) the insurance companies.

Well,..okay,.. there ARE their respective lobbyists,.. their bought-and-paid-for legislators, etc., etc.....

So first and most importantly,... ALL of these guys have to be cut OUT of the problem-solving process,... They are not part of the solution because they are not particularly concerned with what the problem actually is.

The problem is that some 40 million Americans have no medical coverage whatsoever and, as a result, they don't receive medical care when they need it,... Hell, they usually don't even seek it.

What kind of medical care are we talking about here? After all, we do not have 40 million cases of catastrophic life-threatening illnesses. We have carpenters with broken fingers, or needing a few stitches. Poor kids with ear infections. A middle-aged adult with a painful tooth that needs pulling. The list goes on,... everyday health problems for everyday people,.. sufficiently "minor" that proper treatment can be bypassed,.. happening to people who are nowadays increasingly broke and unemployed,... no money or insurance,... and for the most part, these are complaints which probably only occur for the average person once every year or two. Yet they don't even seek proper attention because they don't have that all-important card.

Well, let's give them a card. A DEBIT card,.... say, around $250 worth per individual,... for that occasional time when they really need a few stitches or a prescription for tetracycline from one of the many "first care clinics," ... usually a visit to one of these runs a hundred bucks, maybe two hundred,.. Sure, we're not talking about life-or-death suffering, but we are talking about innocent children, missed hours for the self-employed and needless pain.

One visit to a clinic per year for those not currently covered by anything else,.. and who frankly don't really require any more than that. That's all I'm asking. THEY are the great overlooked and left-out. The elderly have Medicare, Medicaid,..

Payment directly from the government to the service provider,.... No excessive (and therefore mischievous) handling of dollars by corporate opportunists of any kind,... And a limit of allowance on the charges-by-procedure levied by the physician or group -- these things have been exploited before, too, eh?

A simple $250 debit card. 40 million people would cost $10 billion, plus administration. I know I haven't thought of all the details, but is this such a crazy idea?

[TWiley]

1. After the $250 is gone .... then what?

There are many illnesses which require that much money for treatment each week. If hospitalized, then $250 would not cover a single day.

It is not the small things that are the concern .... many simply go untreated. It is the big ones that cannot be ignored that are the problem.

Welcome to DU by the way. Keep the thoughts coming.

[HillbillyBob]

2. 250$ does not even cover the cost of appearing in an ER exame room.

A visit for say 5 stitches costs around 1500, then there is the return to remove them..Though I have always done the removal myself.