Tuesday, July 21, 2009

buffet style health insurance

Here's a simple way to get a cap on health care costs:
Insist that no one can be denied all insurance, but allow a term life insurance style premium increase based on a physical/preexisting conditions. (someone 300 pounds with diabetes must be able to buy health insurance, but will pay more than a 170 pound gym-goer)
Next, require a cover page that lists all the categories of medical services and the deductible/percentage the customer pays next to each item.
After this, allow HMOs to let their customers decrease their deductible in each area for an increased premium.

It would look something like this:

Doctor's visits $25
Annual checkup free
Emergency room $100
Surgical $100
Chiropractic $30
Mental Health $15
Prescriptions:
Brand name $10
Generic $5
pre-existing conditions:
$
$
Non-traditional:
$
$
etc.
Monthly Premium $#########

If I were an insurance company under this system, I would have a web page where customers could see this cover page and have buttons and drop-down menus to adjust these co-pays with a corresponding change in premium.
(much like http://www.gcworkshop.com/ sells computers)

Finally, I would have a law against denying rightful claims that would award punitive damages.

Once we had a system like this, people would have a monetary incentive to live a healthy life and healthy people would be able to get a minimum coverage to protect against a major medical catastrophe without feeling like they were subsidizing those who refuse to take care of themselves.

I know, this doesn't do much for the poor soul who winds up with cancer or another equal opportunity disease. I just wish more churches would step back up to caring for the needy since when they do it, they're much more efficient than govt.