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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (51766)	3/5/2008 9:53:09 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 540927

We have Kaiser HMO, and it is very nice to not have to pay anything but a co-pay. It's certainly no frills, though. I think HMOs are the most cost-effective private insurance, so much so that I turned down conventional 80-20 insurance at work and they pay me directly what they would have paid for me. Also solves the "which provider pays?" paperwork hassle. Nightmare scenario, yesterday client with Kaiser AND 80-20 coverage racked up thousands in hospital bills, Kaiser paid, then rescinded payment because there was another insurer, and the other insurer refused coverage because the claim was not made w/in 180 days. Now the hospital is suing. No problem, we'll just include it in the bankruptcy and let the insurers and the hospital figure it out without the client as the fall guy. Not saying that insurance claims easy to deal with, far from it, not for anybody, patients, providers, insurers. But convenience is not the issue here, communication is a problem that can be solved with technology, not trashing the system.

To: Lane3 who wrote (51766)	3/5/2008 10:09:01 PM
From: rich evans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540927

A middle way is to require everyone to have catastrophic medical insurance- with $2000 deductible. Then coverage begins at 80%- after paying another $3000, - you reach stop loss and insurance pays all. This is a standard catastrophic insurance policy. Do not use comprehensive insurance as Mass and other have tried. This will bankrupt. Then health becomes like shelter, food, cars etc. Your responsibility but You get insurance for catastrophic events. You set up taxfree health savings account of $2000 a year to cover the deductible or larger to get the copay. Everyyear what is not spent is released to the owner. Encourgages proper use of health services. Employers could do this like 401k or do matching funds etc. The insurance companies could design policies, not the gov . Different policies for different situations-pregnancy, mental health, drugs, acupuncture etc and different costs of course. A minimum policy would be required by law. The insurance companies would be the ones holding down costs under their prenegotiated rate methods. Which they do now. Drugs thru insurance are much cheaper. Operations -hips, knees, lungs,-you name it - are aboiut a third of the cost thru prenegotiated rates. Doctor visits are about 1/2. Keep it away from medicare rates though and the gov as that is one huge mess and much to cheap payments. This is my middle ground. Not my Idea. The Swiss system.