Health Care Sans Government

            Health Care Sans Government by David Stott

     What are the main concerns about providing health care to the poor in America?  Simply put, it’s deemed to be way too expensive, and the fact that the government is involved, makes the administration completely inefficient, resulting in even higher cost.  What if we could eliminate government waste, including Medicaid and all state run health care bureaucracies, and still provide health care to all those who can’t afford it?  What if we could do it using a totally voluntary contribution system?  Would you be interested in hearing about it?

     It seems that the only way to get anything done in this day of partisan bickering and gridlock, is to satisfy everyone, which is nearly impossible, especially when it comes to health care!  The left wants ?free health care,? which is total nonsense because we will all pay for it one way or the other. Not to mention the fact that anytime government gets involved, the costs skyrocket Have you seen your insurance premiums since Obamacare was passed?

    The right wants the free market to work its magic, and promote competition between insurance companies, decrease regulations and tort expenses, etc.  While I certainly believe in the free market and small government, there is no way that all Americans will have access to health care without something revolutionary being implemented.  Furthermore, every year the government issues reports saying that there are literally $100’s of billions of tax payer dollars lost in government run health care programs through fraud and mismagement.  Would a private company allow that to continue?  Of course not!  Why not create a private, non-profit corporation, whose sole objective is to efficiently collect, and then reimburse healthcare providers who treat those Americans who can’t afford private insurance?  Here is how I envision it:

    The American Health Care Corporation

     Here is the revolutionary part:  All Americans, regardless of income, may contribute on a pretax basis,  any amount of their income to the American Health Care Corporation (AHCC). These dollars would be used to reimburse healthcare providers the actual costs of providing care to the uninsured.   Every dollar donated would be a write off, no matter how much is donated.  If you are super wealthy, and can afford (or would benefit from) a donation of $1,000,000 then so be it!  $1,000,000 comes off your taxes for the year.  If medical costs exceed current funds, and the AHCC needs more than is being contributed, increase the incentive to donate by allowing a $1.25 write-off for every $1.00 donated.  If AHCC is running a consistent surplus, decrease the incentive by only allowing $.90 for every $1.00 donated and so on.  I believe that even though income tax revenue would be decreased, the net effect would be substantial savings to the taxpayer. This would increase the unemployment rate among healthcare bureaucrats, but would the politicians really be able to squelch this idea, if it accomplished the goal of both the Democrats and the Republicans?

     Warren Buffet and the Hollywood elite, could stop blaming Republicans, and actually contribute an unlimited amount to help their fellow Americans with all health care expenses!  No more silly press conferences and nonsense, just get it done.

The goal of the AHCC would be to remove the bureaucracy and inherent waste involved in government programs, not remake the existing structural concept of providing healthcare to those who can’t afford it.

     Created by an Act of Congress, the AHCC would be completely free from direct government interference, but would comply with all nonprofit rules and regulations.  All company executives would be paid in accordance with nonprofit corporate standards, and administrative expenses would be lower than the average for all other nonprofits.  Initially, executives and employees would be hired away from existing programs that provide assistance to the uninsured, since these folks know the intricacies of the health care system.

     Unlike government run programs like Obamacare, there would be strict language built into the charter of AHCC requiring absolute financial transparency, and the board and executives would be held accountable for containing costs and elimination of fraud.  All bonuses and other compensation would be directly tied to cost containment and prudent operation of the corporation.

AHCC would have a corporate office, probably in Washington D.C., with satellite offices in each state and territory.  This structure would allow current procedures used in dealing with Medicare and state run programs, to remain relatively unchanged, although all current government programs would be rendered obsolete by the formation of the AHCC.  There would be no need for any more government health bureaucracies,, once AHCC has been phased in.  The American people, through their voluntary contributions, would completely eliminate the need for the fraud-ridden, inefficient, ridiculous government health apparatus!  This would decrease medical costs across the board, including lowering of premiums for those with private insurance.  Wonderful concept, huh?

     The obvious concern would be that once this program was established, we would all be tempted to drop our existing coverage and abuse the generosity of the American people.  Not so fast!  All current criteria for coverage would continue.  In order to qualify for reimbursement, hospitals would have to provide extensive documentation to support any uninsured claim.  Just like Medicaid or state programs, there would be income tests put in place, and whatever else is currently done to ensure compliance and sanity.  As stated earlier, the object of the AHCC is to provide a method of finance, and remove the inherent government inefficiencies from the cost of health care, not remake it from scratch.  There are so many details not mentioned in this piece that would have to be worked out, but the concept of financing health care with pre-tax, voluntary contributions, sans government, is an idea worth discussing! – David Stott