Universal Coverage

From: Coffey, John R

 

I had this idea that we could take all the money companies and the government spend now on healthcare and give every single person the country a medical savings account.  Everybody would get an equal amount, whatever that would be, except at first we might have to give more for seniors who would lose Medicare.

 

People can spend the account as they see fit on medical care/insurance/preventative care/nursing home care.   I would disallow using it for medical marijuana.

 

They can invest the account as they see fit.  When people reach retirement age, they could use a fraction of the account as income.

 

I also think that we should eliminate the income ceiling on how much people contribute to SS/Medicare.

 

John Coffey

 

 

From: Trout, Larry

 

This is a similar solution that JP and I finally agreed on with a modifier.

People would use their tax free HSAs for most medical expenses by price shopping.

Tax free insurance premiums would be paid by people for insurance covering unexpected severe health events, maybe costing more than 12,000 a year.

Insurance companies liability would be limited to maybe 50,000 or 60,0000  a year.

The Federal government would step in above this, essentially offering and a extreme high deductibility insurance to all citizens for free, protecting from extreme events and chronic conditions.