There is a stigma developing in the United States against those who do not
have health insurance and that stigma only makes the problem worse. It blinds one
to the true problem and hinders the ability to find responsible productive
solutions.
I mentioned to my friend the issue of requiring some level of health
insurance to qualify to establishing an HSA; health savings account.
He is well insured through his work, yet opened into a rant against the
policy. “When your kid is born you can set up an IRA for his education, you can
set up IRA’s for almost anything but the government wont let you set up an HSA
without buying health insurance…..”
What did Paul Ryan mean by the extension of HSA’s? Does his plan come
anywhere near to the excellent plan envisioned by Ben Carson, a man embedded in
the healthcare system until recently? A plan where everyone can invest freely in
an HSA, funds transferrable among family members, where the family becomes their
own healthcare insurance policy has captured the hearts and minds of the people
of this nation.
And what of removing those lines around the states? When Paul Ryan mentions
farmer’s and construction worker’s guild’s policies crossing the lines, are the
changes he is referring to for only some professions and not others?
Who knows. One thing is certain, the American people have no reason to trust
their politicians.
Most essential to healthcare reform is the establishment of a system that
competes with health insurance providers.
Let us say we allow children to stay on their parents policy until 26. A
couple’s child is 22. He has an HSA established from when he was born. His
parents come to him and say, “Hey, we are paying $500 a month to keep you on our
policy. How about we give you $300 a month for your HSA and we take you off the
policy. Your HSA is already pretty large and you’re young…”
So $500 a month leaves the health insurance industrial complex and $300 more
is set aside to empower the healthcare purchaser. The parent’s are getting a
deal as, if the funds are transferrable between family members, there is in some
scenario more money for their healthcare needs.
In fact, family HSA’s may become so large (due to length of investment and/or
sudden death) that, if a person begins investing responsibly when young, a
family may see no need for health insurance at all. When marrying and having
children it may be wise to seek a stable job that provides insurance but
otherwise it would be unnecessary. Then when one retires they can tap their HSA
for Medicare supplemental policies. Or will Medicare even be necessary?
Life Insurance may also be a backup for one’s HSA as it can be tapped by the
terminally ill to help with healthcare costs. With a substantial HSA and a good
sized Life Insurance policy, many may see no need for health insurance.
These scenarios bring competition, market forces not only in the market for
services, bringing costs down, but straight up against the healthcare insurance
providers. The problem with healthcare is that it has become an incestuous cabal
of healthcare providers, health insurance companies and government. These
institutions are concerned only with their own profits and stature, and the
people have been forgotten.
These and the following example below will bring the health insurance
lobbyists to lobby for a better product because they are competing with people
providing for themselves. Now let me tell you what I, as a common man, envision
in regards to removing the lines around the states.
No lines. Now, let us say a church, which has limited members (needing health
insurance) state by state, but has large numbers nation wide, sets up their own
insurance company, much like our teachers did here in Wisconsin.
A member under their Church’s health insurance becomes sick. They pay their
bills in cash, receiving the cash discount, because they submit their bills
directly to their insurer, not through their healthcare provider. The insurer
need only confirm that previous bills were paid before paying out for
further bills.
The insurer being the Church, there are ministers and elders familiar with
the congregation who know if the member is truly sick. In this way fraud is
reduced. Those ensuring no fraud is being committed are not technically under
the payroll of the insurer; their Church’s company. Yet another savings found in
man’s ability to care for his fellow man without being told or forced to by
law.
Now, if the policy is lacking, unable to cover all costs for the Church
member, there is a built in crowd funding community to fill in for the costs of
being severely ill.
But I do not know if anything I have described here is possible under the
proposed replacement bill, which is promised to be passed after we pass the bill
to take care of the health insurance companies. Is it any wonder that I and most
Americans do not trust the government?
We, and the Freedom Caucus if I may speak for them, believe that putting off
these changes, HSA’s and removing the lines as President Trump puts it, until
later translates into putting them off forever.
President Trump is a business man. He can relate with businessmen in the
insurance industry and understand their positions. But does he truly understand
what has been perpetrated against the people by the health insurance industrial
complex? How differently would these businessmen present their case to President
Trump if the people had options other than health insurance to provide for their
healthcare?
The promise of removing the lines around the states and the ability to freely
establish HSA’s are a very big issue among the people. They should be addressed
first. If so the insurance company lobbyists will rush in with multiple ways to
reform the health insurance system; reforms that will benefit the people.
It is just how I see it.
