by Sheryl Hamlin

Created on: March 29, 2009

Easy Healthcare for America

The healthcare debate of the 1990's focused on the massive, secretive program from the Clinton years now fondly known as "hillarycare". The Bush years brought America a massive, confusing prescription drug program, which doesn't even cover preventative medicines. The new administration has proposed literally trillions of dollars of taxpayer funded healthcare.

The complexity of a "health care solution" has been exaggerated by the consultants and proponents of a national program. Social planners who aim to benefit by a national program have large budgets to propose with few specifics.

There is a simple, understandable solution to easy healthcare for America, which can be outlined in a few simple paragraphs.

First of all, there is a working model now which everyone understands. This model is called "food stamps". What I propose is a health model derived from the food stamp model. Let's call is "Health Chits". The federal government simply issues health chits on a means-tested basis for a certain amount of money each month. How about providing $250 for an individual and $400 for a family of four? An individual may spend' his or her health chits, just like he or she would spend food stamps. Any health insurance provider or insurer who accepts the health chits will provide the health service.

This proposal provides many benefits:

1. Simple to understand. Everyone understands food stamps.

2. Simple to administer. The government issues stipends each month to the qualified persons or to their providers.

3. Recipients understand the value of their health chits when they shop around for benefits.

4. New businesses and consultants will develop to help citizens spend' their health chits, thus stimulating private business and teaching beneficiaries how to shop around for care. When people shop around, prices tend to become competitive.

5. Individuals will be responsible for taking care of their own lives and healthcare and will develop personal responsibility.

For example, I have been a member of Kaiser for almost 30 years and this proposal would fit into my solution. Blue Cross offers a $2500 annual premium where you can choose your own doctor. There are thousands more. Some medical providers will accept the health chits outright. The possibilities are endless.

There are supposedly 42 million uninsured Americans. Assuming 50% of the uninsured take advantage of the program, this amounts to about 20 million potential users of the health chits. At $250 a month ($3000 annually), this equates to about $60 billion annually. Not only is this much less than that the trillions proposed in the current budget, but there will be positive offsets in the businesses and jobs that emanate from new industries related to health chips.

If this sounds simple, it is. Simple, straight forward and workable. Who's ready to sponsor this plan?

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