Harryk wrote:
Frogwatch wrote:
On Apr 17, 4:55 pm, wrote:
On 4/17/2011 1:07 PM, wrote:



On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 19:56:40 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:
OK, I accept that this is mostly a political group with occasional
boating posts.
I had an idea I'd like to run past people on all sides.
One thing people dislike about Obamacare is that it compels people to
purchase a product. Here is a way around the problem.
Require people to contribute 10% of their income to a "pension
account". We can get away with this because we already do it with
SS. However, this account could be used at any time to pay for
current healthcare including health insurance. Contributions would be
tax free and payments for qualified healthcare taken from the growth
of the accounts (which you would control) would also be tax free.
This would encourage people to shop around for healthcare and to not
go to the emergency room for a cold. At the end of the year, they
could get back part of what htye put in if it was not taken up by
health care. This would allow each person to put in money when they
are young and in good health and then use the money when they are
older.
Poor people would get contributions from the govt to their account and
they could pay for whatever healthcare they wanted.
It's a bunch of nonsense. Feel free to blame poor people for your
problems.
We need to get away from private insurance companies. They're in it
for the money not for the public health.
We need to get away from private financial institutions. They're in it
for the money, not for the public wealth. We need to get away from
public officialdom. They are in it for the money, not the public good.
We need to get away from public and private sector employment. They are
in it for the money as well. You are such a dumb ass

Odd, I talked to someone from Switzerland two weeks ago about this
topic and he told me that they have private health insurance but are
required to have it. He specifically said it was private.

In Switzerland, private health insurance companies all offer the same
basic health insurance to all comers at the same price. It doesn't
matter whether you pick Company A, B, or C. If you can afford the
premiums, you pay. There are different deductibles. If not, the premiums
are subsidized. The insurance companies are not allow to make a profit
on these plans. Young and old pay the same basic premium. No one can be
refused coverage.

In exchange for offering the same basic policies, the insurance
companies are able to offer their customers various kinds of
supplemental health insurance policies at market rates and on these they
can make a profit.

That's certainly better than what we have here. Interesting that the
Swiss, the most capitalistic people in the world, regulate their health
insurance industry so closely.

Oh...the Swiss live longer than we do, too.

The system we have...stinks.


Our private health insurance industry runs like a variation of the
Pentagon, it is full of corruption and waste, and it seems to exist
mostly to protect its own.