The Socialized health care system will not work, as other government run social programs have proven. Instead let us model it after family oriented and charity based system that has thrived for centuries across the globe.
A health and well being savings account managed by a non-profit agency, with the sole purpose of creating an interest bearing account for every citizen that any individual or organization may donate to at any time will provide a solution to weaken the stress of the existing social security, medicare, and Medicaid systems. By allowing access to said account by the citizen similar to the way a medical flex spending account but without the annual restriction it would allow the person the ability to set aside a very sizable nest egg for times in their life when they may need it.
Currently the average citizen contributes 7% of their pay to socialized government systems that have been proven to become bankrupt before many of my generation will be able to reap the benefit. If six of the seven percent was set aside into this savings account, the remainder going to existing systems to meet the needs of those who would not qualify, it could be accessed at any time to pay for medical expenses and replace social security after retirement. If every child of working age was able to set aside 1% of their income to a retired parents account we could see a perpetual growth in the size of that parents account.
To improve this solution would be to allow any individual or group to add an individual to their health insurance policy, irregardless of their affiliation, at a nominal rate. Insurance companies would offset the additional expense by expanding their client base and everyone wins. An example of this in action would be if my brother,who is in the auto industry, lost his job and thus his insurance I could add him or sponsor a percentage of his health care coverage in conjunction with other family members on a pre-tax basis.
Other applications for the account could be assisting in school tuition or unemployment assistance.
In the event of the death of the individual the remaining funds can be transferred to contributing citizen accounts in per-portion to amount donated during life time, or as directed by living will so long as funds remain within the system.
The interest gained from the account can be split to encourage the growth of the account as well as offset the cost of managing such an organization.
Comments (5)
Look people-everything the government touches is an economic disaster. The list is long. Medicare/Medicade (which are now billions of dollars in debt), the Postal Service (going broke), inner city schools, Social Security (which is now bankrupt), etc. etc. Call your Congressmen and tell them forget it. We don't want the taxes and we don't want the Federales making decisions about our health care.
And the working people who are just getting by and don't have any extra money to put away? Making $30,000 a yr. family of 4, with a modest home. Everyting around them going up in price but their pay check. Face it. This is where 65% of the work force is at.
Virtually every other democracy in the world has shown that socialized medicine works very well. Allowing profits to be made from human suffering is morally reprehensible. Private insurers profit from high premiums and denial of care.
Socialized medicing has failed or is failing in every country in which it has been tried. In Great Britian you have to wait months to see a doctor or get surgery and the Canadians come to the U.S. for their health care when they something seriously wrong with them. Obama's web site says 46 million people don't have health care but the facts are that 27 million of them (more than half) earn more than $55k a year and can afford it if they choose to spend it on that instead of other things.
The whole wait to see a doctor in (name that country) has been debunked. If socialized medicine is so bad, how come all the nations that have it the people live longer (80 years instead of 72 years for US) and consistantly poll that they like their health care better than Americans? As for waiting, every time I call my PCP she is unavailable and I can't get an appointment for a week or two.