How About A Democratic National Party Health Insurance Plan?

[Old and In the Way]

I was reading a post at TBogg about the RW noise machine bashing the family of the 12 YO kid who gave the Democrat's response on the S-CHIP program. Totally disgusting.

Then I got to thinking....why doesn't the Democratic Party just start the program up by themselves and forget about the Republicans? We have probably 60MM voting Americans, maybe equaling 1/3 of the total American population. Why not develop a comprehensive HIP that would function like a single-payer plan at the federal level? While it would be "private" in the sense that it wouldn't be run by the federal government, this approach would at least get the structure in place to eventually port it into a true national healthcare program. Do things like well baby, early screening, and preventitive healthcare? Negotiate drug prescriptions on behalf of all Democrats.

And once it is successful, we could open it up to Republicans....at a significant premium of course.

Think of it Howard Dean....what better way to take on the Republican Big Pharma/For Profit Healthcare Industry then by banding together in a Democrat Party sponsered healthcare insurance program?

[cyclezealot]

1. That is what National conventions are supposed to do

with the candidate driven platform. And something to fear should Hillary have her way.

[Demeter]

2. Single Payer Health Care ISN'T Insurance

It doesn't claim to "pool risk" and then discriminate between the healthy and the chronically ill to minimize the risk that the insurance company will actually have to pay any bills, a method of cheating the sick out of receiving necessary care followed by insurance companies. It doesn't collect premiums and then invest them, in the hopes that the investments will not only cover the costs that the insurer can't possibly avoid, due to some error in writing the contracts, but also provide a tidy profit that management can boast about on Wall St. and reward to its CEO.

It just collects tax money and pays bills. I expect that there would be a fraud unit, to make sure that doctors, hospitals and such were not ripping off the taxpayers, and that criminally negligent or incompetent doctors were forever banned from the system for treating the ill. Perhaps there could be some negotiation on pricing, although the government has been abusive about that.

The only way that single payer government health care works is by the massive reduction in paperwork and paper pushers, the massive investment in citizens' timely health care, and the removal of the profit motive. It removes the incentive to cut corners, steal, cook the books, etc. It takes the American business manager out of the medicine business.

[Lasher]

3. I don't want another healthcare insurance program.

I want healthcare insurance companies eliminated from the equation.

[Uben]

4. right Lasher

Removing insurance companies from the equation is the solution.......if you want to cut the pork out of it. A national catatrophic plan is what we need, somthing to keep people from going broke over med costs. I'm not talking about a give away where people can go to the doc for a cough or a few stitches, but a plan that kicks in after say the first $5000, and takes care of the rest, while controlling costs and over-charges by greedy hospital corps.

Big Pharma aint gonna like it, but we need a government controlled Rx inventory and dispensation center. Take the most expensive life saving drugs, buy and store them in bulk through negotiated contracts world-wide. Dispense them free to folks who cannot afford them and charge the rest according to their ability to pay, based on their income tax history (we are computerized these days).

One of the things killing people are the costs associated with diagnostic machines like MRIs and CAT scans. Doctors are too quick to order MRIs and scans to cover their asses and help the hospitals pay for their machines. Regulating their use and these costs would vastly lower health costs!

Regulate what hospitals can charge for drugs. HAve you ever seen what they charge for a single pain killer capsule on an insurance bill? $10-$20! SOme hospitals charge up to $10 for a twenty-five cent plastic container, that is never used, but available. WTF?

When it cost $40-$50,000 for a hospital stay less than 24 hrs, something is terribly wrong, and it is!

[Old and In the Way]

5. kick for the hell of it.

Lets have choice....those that want a Democratic System on healthcare ought to have the choice. Those that want to set up a health savings plan and invest it in Enron stock while negotiating benefits with Republican for-profit HMO's....be my guest.

[antigop]

6. LUV IT! Great idea! Sadly, some will choose the latter for fear of "socialized medicine". n/t