1) The first step is to create private health savings accounts. You would choose your own private insurance and receive money back from the government which would cover your costs. Consider it to be a way that would both protect private industry and provide healthcare for people who are struggling to pay for it.
2) Due to the existence of these accounts, anyone currently under Medicare or Medicaid would receive a private account; therefore there is no further need for those programs. Anyone currently receiving government funds for healthcare or is currently in need of healthcare is eligible for this account program.
3) If you have your own insurance already, then you can keep it or you can request your own private healthcare account.
4) The purpose of giving people the money to pay for their own insurance is important because it will protect choice, foster competition among the private companies, and eliminate the role of government from meddling in your affairs. Government is not effective at running anything, so do you really want to trust them with your healthcare? This allows you to make the decisions about what is best for you and for your family.
5) Quite possibly the biggest question is how to pay for this plan or any reform plan for that matter, so here it is.
A) Since we would no longer have a need for Medicare and Medicaid anymore, the money that is currently going to pay for that can be rerouted to the private account plan. That would provide a total amount of $511 billion a year in government money to put toward private plans.
B) States would be required to cover some of the costs as well; all of their money going to health services can be rerouted into the plan. COMBINED, the total amount that states spend on health services every year is $1.5 trillion. Take the amount each state spends and add it with the federal amount.
C) If you are employed, your employer would still be required to pay their share of your insurance; it would not increase at all. It is impossible to know much money that would generate, but it would be considerable.
6) Just in case there are loopholes in the system, and every system has them, every county in the United States should have at least one free clinic in order to care for those who fell through the loophole. This will act as a safety net for people.
7) Prescription drugs will need to be reformed and there will be encouragements for doctors to prescribe generic drugs in order to keep costs down even more. Pharmaceutical companies can compete with one another on prices, but preference will be given to generics to make sure costs do not spiral out of control.
8) Tort reform would be enacted to keep costs down and lower insurance rates for doctors. This can save millions of dollars every year.
9) Medical records should be made electronic to allow for better communication to your medical providers and cut through some more of the bureaucracy.
10) Provide educational scholarships and loan forgiveness programs to doctors and nurses for joining the medical field. With the addition of millions of new people to our healthcare system we will need more experts to treat them. This will provide financial incentives to become a medical professional and keep wait time down in the long run.
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