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Universal Health Care:

In the argument over universal health care (or health insurance), the key word is "universal". It means only that everyone gets some. It does not mean "uniform", nor does it necessitate centralized (government) administration, nor even a single-payer bureaucracy.

America has the resources to deliver basic care to every resident, so achieving universal health care is just a matter of finding the will and the way. I think that America currently has a majority will; most arguments have been about (or against) proposed ways.

Commentators both pro and con, focus on too narrow a range of bureaucratic plans, that all suffer from many well publicized drawbacks. If those authoritarian plans were the only options, then universal health coverage might be theoretically possible but completely impractical or undesirable.

Fortunately, I can envision other, more elegant policies. By outlining one such alternative solution, I will demonstrate that universal health care is not just feasible but practical. As a bonus, I may also demonstrate that a government-administered "public option" is unnecessary.

I hope that readers who came to the pro side of this debate expecting a public option will forgive me for that. Please try to see the value in an alternative that deftly avoids many complaints.

The desirability and constitutionality of my plan are beyond the scope of the question posed, so I do not address those issues here.

Goals:

My aim is to solve these crucial health care and health insurance problems with minimum government involvement:

* Empower all legal residents of the US to access and afford health insurance (demonstrate practical universal health insurance).

* Retain free-market pricing and competition.

* Motivate people to buy health insurance early in life and never go uninsured.

* Render coverage easily transferable, especially for people having existing conditions.

* Put downward pressure on insurance prices.

* Enhance quality-of-service competition between providers.

Six Element Outline:

1) Offer sufficient tax credits that tax-payers will buy their own coverage and/or contribute to charity buying coverage for those who couldn't otherwise afford it.

2) Require each insurer to use one rate schedule for all subscribers, regardless of prior condition. Insurers could still set whatever rates they wanted by age, region etc.

3) Let each insurer to attach a lump-sum entrance fee to each prior condition it cares about. An insurer could set its fees at whatever level

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