This is part three of a four part series on the solution to replacing Obamacare. Remember that free enterprise works when the consumer makes a buying decision based on price and quality. Unfortunately Obamacare has taken the opposite approach. The result has been a disaster with rising prices and falling quality.
While we do not want to have any direct monetary role with the federal government in our health care proposal (no comment on Medicare or Medicaid in this series), there is a role for the federal government in bringing down the cost of health care.
In part 2, we mentioned the lack of transparency. Part of the solution is to begin unbundling healthcare products so they can be individually purchased based on price and quality.
Want the Whole Story?
This book was written by Joe Gilbertson of the Punching Bag Post Staff. This is the solution to the Obamacare fiasco:
However even with the maximium in unbundling, insurance is one of the most complex products to shop for. It is just not possible to make a confident choice.
How can the average person trust what they are buying? How do we reduce or at least nullify the complexity of health insurance policies.
Suppose the federal government works with the industry to develop some “template” insurance plans. These would be plans that represent solid insurance policies, the kind with no hidden tricks, no “gotchas,” the kind of policies that can be trusted.
The government is good at being trusted, since it does not have a profit motive and has no reason to cheat. There should be a series of these templates to represent the usual range of plans one might buy.
These are not plans to be offered, they are just templates, no insurance company would be required to sell any of the plans represented by the templates.
TheY would, however, be required to compare any plan they do sell to the closest template and publish the difference and exceptions for prospective buyers.
Since the government template is “trusted,” it becomes a baseline for selecting a health insurance policy. Instead of reviewing the entire medical professon for possible hole in the policy, the consumer only has to review and judge the value of the relatively small number of exceptions contained in the comparison document.
This book was written by Joe Gilbertson of the Punching Bag Post Staff. This is the solution to the Obamacare fiasco:
Now the consumer can shop based on price and quality. The risk of 99% of any policy is absorbed by the federal government, and those templates will have been analyzed by hundreds of insurance companies and institutions.
Now let’s go one step further. Let’s put these templates online and have them searchable by the public.
Does template #12 (the closest to my policy) cover the Peruvian flu? Search the government template and it say yes, the template covers the Peruvian flu. Does my insurance company comparison document say the Peruvian flu is not covered? No. Therefore it is covered. No rejection for obscured reasons, no fine print reducing your benefits, no lawyers have to be called.
The advantages are many. First it takes all of the uncertainly out of health insurance. The consumer has the confidence he/she is in a solid plan and has the ability to control costs and coverage.
Second, it reduces the the number of lawsuits that have to be filed when insurance companies refuse to cover issues that are denied in the fine print. Medical lawsuits have become an epidemic (pun intended!) in America.
All of the fine print now belongs to the government. All the complexity is safely tucked away.
The consumer can shop confidenty based on price and quality and be assured they will not be hoodwinked by fine print. This is free enterprise, prices go down.
Opposite of Obamacare – Part 1/4 – Businesses Should Not Buy Health Care
Opposite of Obamacare – Part 2/4 – Separate Health Insurance from Health Maintenance.
Opposite of Obamacare – Part 3/4 – The Federal Government’s Role