1.) paying for Medical education.
premed, nursing school and medical school can all be pretty expensive,so, here's my plan. the Military pays for school for their medical people while they're in the military, usually with a commitment of five years or so of active duty afterwards. If someone qualifies and wants to go to med school or nursing school then have the government pay for it, when school is finished then that person would work( internship included) at a public and/or teaching hospital or clinic for five years at a lower pay rate, maybe around $30,000.00 to $35,000.00 a year, the difference between this and what another doctor or nurse that paid their own way would go towards paying off their educational cost. At the end of their five year commitment( having spent that time helping the poor and destitute.) these medical professionals could go to work wherever they wanted to( Private practice, hospitals, etc..) and the government would pay off outright whatever cost is left from their school bill.
2.) paying for everything else.
A large portion could come from selling off the assets of those who are caught and convicted of fraud and abuse of the system( remember part 1 of this topic?) all of this money would go into a special government fund that helps to pay for health care costs. their should be a public option available for those who are too poor to buy Insurance for themselves, however, the participants should be means tested( taxpayers are already way over taxed as it is, we shouldn't have to pay for someone else that is trying to get over on the system and screwing all of us in the process.)
Maybe we should offer a reward for tips about someone committing fraud($500. to a $1000.00) if they are caught and convicted.
3.) legalize marijuana.
If we legalize Marijuana and tax it that could possibly raise hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, heres how to tax it:
A.) License fee for growing Marijuana.
$1000.00 to $10,000.00 a year. This fee would be based on the size of an operation that grows it for commercial purposes. An Individual would be able to grow a certain amount, strictly for personal use, sort of like brewing your own beer( you can brew a 100 gallons a year for personal use with no license or tax.) Those caught selling it without a license, or to minors( under 21) would be prosecuted( no license= tax laws, selling to minors = a big fine-$1000.0+)
B.) License fee for selling Marijuana. A license would also be required to wholesale(distribute) or to sell Marijuana at the retail level($1000.0+ to wholesale. $500.00? to retail)
The laws and penalties regarding use would be the same as those regarding alcohol. much money could be made at the local, state and federal level to help pay for health care costs and education,not to mention the money saved by not busting, prosecuting and Jailing a lot of people who go down under the current laws.
4.)Corporate or business paying for costs.
companies that currently offer health care to their employees are able to deduct that as a cost of business, this should be raised to a dollar for dollar deduction ($100,000. a year for health care equals a$100,000.00 off of your gross income.) companies that don't offer benefits should do so,( Walmart, are you listening?) after all if the points that I've outlined in parts one and two are implemented then the cost of doing business and getting health care/ insurance should go way down, right? In the case of companies that have thousands of employees in one area heres an idea: Build a clinic/hospital and hire doctors, nurses, etc.. to staff it, give all of your employees and their dependents a medical/corporate I.d card, these people would have priority for appointments, services,etc.. at that clinic/hospital, other people(non employees would also be able to use the facility but they would be billed just like they would anywhere else.( employees and dependents would be billed nothing.) of course the company would be able to write off 100% of the costs and it would probably be cheaper in the long run than paying HMO/insurance premiums if the company is really big.( think of Ford, Chrysler, etc..) in a certain part of the country. there is actually a precedent for this idea, some years ago I was listening to a show called Colorado matters on Colorado public radio, they were talking about problems getting doctors and such for small towns and a solution that they were thinking of in Burlington, Co.
It seems that the town doctor was getting pretty old and wanted to retire, but, there was no one too replace him. some well off local ranchers and business men came up with the idea of finding some local students that had already been accepted for premed and nursing school, these people then offered to raise the money to build a local clinic and to pay the students tuition and costs if the students would commit to returning to Burlington and work for the town clinic after they'd finished school. This was 6 or 8 years ago when I first heard this on the radio, I don't know what the final outcome was but it's an awesome idea for a small town or a large company.
5.)Personally paying for health care.
The individual person should also be able to deduct 100% of their medical, dental, and vision costs( this does not Include cosmetic surgery, caps or veneers on all of your teeth and things of a purely esthetical nature, this means that if you want expensive designer eyeglass frames then you pay for them yourself.) this would include aspirin, band-aids, vitamins, drugs, doctor visits etc..and anything else related to healthcare costs( including your premiums)
6.) No more flex plans.
many People have medical flex plans that have certain limits of pretax dollars that you can put into them annually, you have to spend all of this money every year or you lose it. This is stupid, here's a better idea: Get the Banks Involved, instead of a flex plan through your insurance company, you would be able to set up a bank account, a medical savings account, or M.S.A.you could then do direct deposit to this account and it would be pretax dollars. The bank would give you a debit card and this account would only be used for your health care costs, here's the difference between this and flex plans, any money left at the end of the year would roll over to the next year. So, if you put in $50.00 a week( or however much)and you have $1000.00 left at the end of the year, then, that rolls over and you have that money in your M.S.A. account. as the years go by, the money accrued and the annual overage in your account would gain interest just like a checking or savings account, assuming that you stay pretty healthy most of the time when you are younger then you would have a decent amount when you get older and start needing more health care. When you do eventually die, whatever is left in your M.S.A. could be passed on to your heirs, let's say 50% to them and 50% to their medical savings account, the portion going to their M.S.A. would, of course, be tax-free.
7.) Copays.
Copays should be payed by everyone, even if it's just a few dollars cost to those people on the public option, this would discourage unnecessary visits from people with hypochondriac tendencies and keep costs down overall.
So, there you have it, I'm pretty sure that if all of these things were implemented that we all could have decent, affordable health care. Unfortunately, the politicians and their cronies in the healthcare and insurance business stand in our way, maybe they should see these ideas and be politely reminded that the politicians are supposed to work for all of us, not just their big contributers and Lobbyist friends. Feel free to let everyone know what you've read here and let me know what you think about my ideas, also don't forget, what you've read here is a lot less than a thousand pages. Have a great day, see you on the beach.
