A New Idea To The Health Insurance Crisis In America
The lack of health insurance coverage for more than 41 million Americans is one of the most pressing issues in the United States. Most older Americans are insured through Medicare, and nearly two-thirds of non-aged Americans are insured through employer-sponsored plans, but employers provide insurance. Many workers and their families remain uninsured because they do not or cannot afford to pay for compensation. Here in Medicaid, Iowa, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or HAWK-I can help bridge some gaps between low-income children and their parents, but the scope of these programs is limited. increase. As a result, millions of uninsured Americans face adverse health effects due to medical delays and abandonment, making it a national priority to extend insurance to uninsured people. It has become.
The number of people who have to go without health insurance is nothing but a crisis in this country today. Over the past few decades, we have been in a vicious circle where health insurance premiums have become so high that even middle-class families cannot afford them. As a result, uninsured people are unable to cover their medical costs, often leading to financial devastation of their families and thus a continuous loss of income to the medical community, which pushes up the cost of medical costs. .. Higher, and eventually back to the insurance company, you need to raise your health insurance premiums to cover the rise in medical costs.
Many proposals have been made by politicians on both sides of the island, from medical socialization comparable to the Canadian system to approval of medical savings accounts and crackdowns on frivolous proceedings against the medical community. While many of these proposals have their advantages, they also bring major drawbacks in addition to the advantages they bring. For example; a socialized national health program eliminates the need for health insurance all at once, and the costs are covered by taxes, but in theory it doesn't seem to be a bad idea. However, the drawbacks of this system include a shortage of new doctors who are willing to enter the field due to the inevitable decline in income, while demand increases due to lack of personal responsibility. In short, if you don't have to worry about deductions and out-of-pocket costs that usually prevent people from seeking treatment for trivial things, they will simply go to the doctor every time they have pain or pain. So now everyone is making reservations and at the same time losing doctors due to lack of incentives, waiting for people with major health problems.
The current fighting cry by the Republican Bush administration is HSA (Medical Savings Account), which reduces premiums by taking cheaper high-deduction health insurance plans with tax deferred savings accounts that earn small interest on the side you contribute. ) Is to press with your insurance premium every month. All money withdrawn from a savings account for eligible medical expenses will be "tax exempt" and unlike flex spending accounts, as many are familiar with employer-based plans, you are You won't lose the money you put into your account Don't use it. Basically, if you've never used that money in your savings account, you can withdraw it or roll it over to another vehicle when you can use it for retirement with a free 62 1/2 penalty. You can do it. This is a viable option for some people, but in many cases the premiums for these plans are still too high, so if you need extensive treatment in the first few years of your policy, you'll have enough money. The problem remains that there is none. Savings accounts help fill the gap and the person pays most of the cost.
Now I have realized that I believe it is one of the biggest problems from the perspective of a health insurance agency. That is, people with existing health cannot take out insurance. From the number of people contacting my office for health insurance coverage, about half of them are in a state of health where the insurance company refuses to apply for that person or is basically a modified rider. I have to say. Excludes compensation for all claims related to that condition.
Examples of conditions that I often encounter are high blood pressure or high blood pressure. These conditions can result in the company rejecting the application altogether if there are other factors involved, but the most common is driver exception correction. You may think this is not a big deal, after all, blood pressure medication is the only thing they have to pay out of their pocket, but what many people don't realize is that these riders don't exclude anything. This can be considered part of the condition, such as a heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm. All of this leads to huge out-of-pocket bills. Consider the fact that my father recently had double bypass surgery. As a result, the final bill was approximately $150,000. This full amount must be taken out of his pocket if he has a high blood pressure driver in his health insurance. With a modest income of $40,000 a year, this would be devastating financially.
So how do you fix this problem? Obviously, the proposals so far have been flawed from the start, and even if one of these plans had the support of the American people, the bill would never have been passed just because of a political conflict. One wants to privatize health care and the other wants to socialize it. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses, as previously explained. We seem destined for this problem, and there is no real idea or light for the tunnel, right? That may not be the case, but let's talk about a client who was in my office a few years ago.
A young woman came in wanting to compare her health insurance plans to see if she and her family had a choice. He has several children, uses Title 19 Medicaid, and attends a public college. He had just graduated from college and got a job in the local school system, but for some reason he was not covered by health insurance benefits. Apparently, he still couldn't afford the $500 or $600 a month for the plan, so he went back to the help office to explain the situation. They ended up working with us to find an acceptable private health insurance plan and refunded it a percentage of the cost which I didn't even know was possible!
This got me thinking, thinking about how many people could be compensated if they could get a government refund of a percentage of their premium based on their income. For example, a young couple in their twenties and one child have a family income of $25,000 and a deductible health insurance plan of $500 with an average premium of $450. For example, suppose the government decides that a family of three with an annual income of $25,000 will be reimbursed 50% of their premiums and that the actual cost of the family is $225 per month. This is now a pretty affordable premium for families to consider.
This integration of private insurance and government support allows us to take advantage of both. Of course, the next question is cost. How much does this cost the American taxpayer and how much does this raise taxes? I don't think it will increase the burden on taxpayers, but for the following reasons: First, we will significantly reduce the number of uninsured people who cannot afford medical expenses and reduce the total. Medical bills. Second, the number of people forced to go bankrupt due to medical expenses due to catastrophic medical conditions not covered by health insurance and driven by Medicaid Title 19 assistance will be significantly reduced. This is important considering that when a person uses Medicaid, there is essentially no incentive to seek treatment for mild or non-existent conditions, as the government has 100% coverage. On the other hand, many conditions that were not handled before they became serious because they were not treated because they were not covered by insurance are now caught before turning into disaster claims. Finally, if the government allocates a certain amount to cover claims by people under the existing conditions, private insurance companies can eliminate the exclusion or disclaimer due to existing health problems. It's already done. The HIPIOWA Comprehensive Plan to insure Iowa residents who cannot be insured elsewhere.
You may sit there and think that these are all hopeful ideas and that these ideas will never work, but these ideas have been implemented. The problem is that only a few states have some programs, and even most health insurance agencies don't know that some low-income households can get a refund on their health insurance premiums. I believe that if all of these programs were standardized and implemented at a nationally recognized level, it would have a major impact on the country's uninsured population. Right now, I don't pretend to know what income level and redemption rate is required, but I do know it's better than nothing. In my opinion, this is the best midpoint we could find. Democrats will be happy with the socialized aspect of redemption, and Republicans will be happy that medical care remains privatized and gives this solution a better chance of gaining party support.
I faxed this idea to several senators and members of the House of Representatives, but I knew enough about how they relate to health care and that no one actually read my letter. I always receive the same kind of standard response as I work hard to find a solution. The only way to make these ideas publicly available is for you to read these and share them with others by reviewing, emailing, or linking your website to this webpage. If more topics are created than these ideas, then there is a worthy consideration. If you or I demand that you find a solution, you can put enough pressure on politicians to get things done. The number of uninsured Americans will only increase, medical costs will only increase, and health insurance costs will only increase if something is not done now! Until then, the only thing I can do as a health insurance agent is to compare all the options out there and present the lesser of all crimes. Often, the chosen option is the worst. Go unprotected.