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Originally posted by SignyM:
Everyone will be covered by a minimum medical plan, unless they specifically opt out.

It will be funded by income taxes (except those who have opted out).

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Originally posted by SignyM:
It will be funded by income taxes (except those who have opted out).

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Geezer, since almost all of our healthcare flaws revolve around implementation, cost, and control it's impossible to avoid those topics. Spending 30% on "administrative" costs (and that just on the INSURANCE end! Hospitals, doctors, labs and therapists wrestle with their own contract tracking and billing costs!) is crazy.

So...

Everyone will be covered by a minimum medical plan, unless they specifically opt out.

It will be funded by income taxes (except those who have opted out).

It will be administered by Medicare.

Medicare will be revised to eliminate the "diagnostic groups" approach.

Coverage will not be available to people in this country illegally (but will be available to people on tourist or student visas etc.)

Reimbursement rates will be calculated regionally to reflect regional costs differences in care.

Additional coverage (for co-pays, cosmetic, or experimental procedures) will be allowed through private insurances.

There must be a quality assurance function on the care provided... this is a huge topic and needs more thought.

There will be a stated minimum coverage, and a minimum of care.

All care providers will be required to report rare-disease incidence, treatment and outcome data to NORD or a similar organization.

All care providers will be required to report adverse drug reactions to the FDA.

All care providers will be required to report communicable disease incidence to the CDC.

These de-identified records will be available though PubMed for research purposes.

Patient records shall belong to the patient and will be released WITH the patient when they are released from care. This could be in the form of a thumb drive or medical record card which the patient can bring with them to each doctor visit or hosptialization. (I really hate the concept of centralized record-keeping. Not only is it open to hacking its also extremely vulnerable to disruptions in power or solar flare EMP.)

Hospital and doctor outcomes will be posted online.

There will be special websites set up for patients to exchange information or to complain about care. Each hospital and doctor must have an ombudsman to resolve complaints.

Malpractice lawsuits will be allowed.

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We should have strapped him into a glider, filled it nose heavy w/ explosives, and dropped his Allah lovin' ass into a large, empty field. After which, release wild boars into the area so they could make good use of his remains. Now THAT's justice.- rappy

Yeah, that's what Sheikh Issa said. Seems you both have a lot in common.- signy

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Originally posted by ncbrowncoat:
The biggest thing is untie health care and jobs. It kills employers and if you don't have a job that provides health insurance, you're up a creek.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
The ones who opt out do not have to pay the taxes. (OTOH it seems to me they cannot opt out for their children.)

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Originally posted by badkarma00:
I still think that using the administrative program already used for Federal Employees is the best way to go with this. It's nationwide, and it is, to my knowledge, fairly well run. The size of the program would have to be increased, of course, but it's cheaper to add on to the program, if it's running properly, than to build a new one from the ground up.

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by badkarma00:
I still think that using the administrative program already used for Federal Employees is the best way to go with this. It's nationwide, and it is, to my knowledge, fairly well run. The size of the program would have to be increased, of course, but it's cheaper to add on to the program, if it's running properly, than to build a new one from the ground up.

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Once again, there really isn't a Federal Employees insurance system. All federal employees are insured by private insurance companies. The only thing the Federal agencies do is publicize the availability of the plans from these private companies, deduct the employees bi-weekly payment from their salary, and pay 75% of the cost of the policy. Since this gives the insurance companies a savings in overhead needed to handle payments, they reduce their rates a fraction.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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