This page but since Fray’s links often don’t link I have also copied it and pasted it here in its entirety. <link>
The Jack Dallas Health Care
Plan
by JackDallas
09/19/2009, 6:55 PM
The health care system is not broken. We have the
best health care system, doctors, nurses, and facilities in the world. What is
broken is access to that system for far too many people for
us to ignore. Nobody with any intellectual honesty can deny that.
For those folks, who are sufficiently well heeled to
be able to afford the best insurance coverage, and subsequently can easily meet
the deductibles, and out of pocket expenses such as the 20% of the total cost
usually not covered by insurance, the system is not broken; it works for them.
How can it be fixed? I don’t think it can be fixed
by having the government take over management of the system. That is a direct
path to disaster, inefficiency, long waits, inferior care and catastrophic
costs. What needs to be fixed is the insurance industry.
Many have stated that insurance companies are
bloodsuckers, evil capitalists, and highway robbers. I agree; they are all that
and more. They must be regulated. Major changes must be made that will take
compromise between those who detest the concept that a corporation is in
business to turn a profit, and those who believe passionately in the free
enterprise system. I believe in the free enterprise system. I believe an
individual, or a company, should be able to make as much money as they can, as
long as they do it legally, ethically and morally correct. So where to draw the
line?
Insurance companies make money legally, but they do
not do so ethically or morally correct, in my opinion. I would have the
government regulate the insurance industry. I would change that industry and
change it historically and without precedent.
The insurance companies should become Not for
Profit organizations, or more accurately limited profit organizations.
I would keep the structures; allow management personnel and employees to earn
salaries and wages that are equal to other major corporation of similar size. I
would even allow top management performance bonuses based on up to 10% of
yearly salary. Salary increases would be allowed but no insurance company CEO
would make more than $500,000 a year; and that would be after many years of
stellar performance.
Appropriate markups to cover overhead (labor burden,
30%; operating costs, etc, no more than 15%) and I would limit those companies
to no more than 10% profit, a percentage of which could be kept as retained
earnings and the rest distributed to the owners. I would cut the 20% out of
pocket costs, not paid by the insurance companies, to 10% and keep reasonable
deductibles. This would keep down abuse of the system by people who go to the
doctor for minor ailments.
I would eliminate malpractice insurance completely.
I would have a panel of doctors, lawyers, and citizens, examine each case
separately and make a determination as to its validity and award a cash
settlement which would be paid by the government.
I would place the same restrictions on the drug
companies that I would on the insurance companies (restructure that industry
just as radically) and I would have government subsidies to ensure that
medications were made available to all Americans at the lowest possible cost.
If a rare drug is prohibitively expensive, then the government would subsidize
the cost of the drug.
This plan would drive some insurance companies out
of business but most would adhere to the plan and I expect there are many top
management personnel who would work in the industry.
This plan flies in the face of the generally
accepted concept of free enterprise, in that it restricts profit. I understand
this but my feeling is this. Exorbitant profits can be made, and should be able
to be made, by individuals and companies who provide people with that which
they want and can afford. It should not be wrenched from people for providing
what they need to stay alive. Reaping exorbitant profits by providing people
with medical necessity is not just wrong, it is evil. This is my opinion.
I would not change the availability of Emergency
Room service to those who are in this country illegally. It is morally wrong to
deny medical service to anyone.
Jack Dallas
