2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #195 "A BETTER FORM OF HEALTHCARE"

     Last week’s edition attacked the direction we are presently going toward, which is socialized medicine.  This edition outlines a better way, which would be to reduce the involvement of government for people who are able to take care of their own healthcare needs simply to requiring each of them each year to invest about $5,000 in a Medical Savings Account.  This would be a separate ATM-type account that they would use to pay for their own healthcare needs.  In addition, they would be required to purchase catastrophic healthcare insurance, which would basically be insurance with a $5,000 deductible.  Research shows that most people spend less than $5,000 per year for their healthcare needs until reaching the later years of their lives.  So if they have an incentive to spend their money wisely, and know that the remaining amount will be rolled over into the next year’s account and eventually be available for their retirement, they will do just that.  This program will produce at least three beneficial results.  The first would be to increase competition for healthcare dollars, which will bring down those costs.  The second would be that the amount of money paid to healthcare professionals would be materially increased, and the amount paid to administrators and bureaucrats materially decreased.  And the third would be once again to encourage people more to act as active partners with their healthcare professionals in their own health.   All of these are good results.

       But what about people who are not able financially to take care of their own needs?  They would be provided with government-paid vouchers which could be used by them to pay for their own healthcare needs as well as insurance.  These vouchers would be provided on a sliding scale based upon each person’s financial condition, but there would always be some form of co-pay, however slight, to encourage responsible purchases.  This approach would then furnish the same basic results as set forth above.  Thus everyone would be encouraged to spend their money/vouchers productively thus bringing costs down.  In addition, more of the money would go to healthcare professionals and less to bureaucrats, which would also reduce fraud in medical billing.  And this approach would also remove inequitable tax breaks for employer-based insurance plans, and encourage everyone to act as partners in their own healthcare.  So what’s not to like?

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Quote for the week:  “The trouble with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat.”  Lilly Tomlin

                                                                              

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #194 "MEDICAL INSURANCE: WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT?"

     As we all have seen, over the last few decades the costs of medical care have quadrupled in the United States as a percentage of our GDP.  How and why has this happened?  That is an easy question to answer, because as the costs have become less transparent, they have risen – enormously.  And how has this come about?  It began during World War II, when the wages that employers could pay their employees was frozen.  So how could employers entice more skilled and able employees to work for them if they couldn’t increase their salaries?  The answer was to offer the employees benefits like medical insurance that were in addition to their wages.  And this situation was compounded again under President Nixon’s system of wage and price controls.  So now, as we know, a large percentage of employees have their health insurance paid for by their employers. 

     How has that raised prices?  Again an easy question to answer.  Today, for example, if people covered by health insurance see their doctor about a knee problem and the doctor asks them if they want to have an MRI, what goes through the patients’ minds?  ”Well, I have health insurance, and the co-pay for me will only be about $30, so why not?  I might as well get the best.”  But if those patients actually paid their own money for the MRI, what would they be asking?  “Okay doc, what will the MRI show us and how much will it cost?”  But unfortunately today cost is not even a factor, to the extent that most of the time not even the doctors know what the cost is.  So that is how the costs have skyrocketed.  How can we bring them down?  Bring in Liberty, which will have patients pay for their own healthcare.  That will not only make the patients larger partners with their doctors in their own healthcare, but it will bring in competition back into healthcare which will, in turn, bring costs back down.  How can this be done?  It’s not that hard.  Just bring in a system of medical savings accounts for those of us who can take care of our own medical needs, and combine it with a system of vouchers on s sliding scale that will address the medical needs of those who are not so financially secure.  And we will discuss this approach next week.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Sign on the wall I say in a dining room at a lodge I stayed at in the Boundary Waters area between Minnesota and the Canadian border that was 30 miles away by canoe from the nearest competitor: “Two choices for dinner: take it or leave it.”

Like everyone else there, I took it.

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.