In today’s workplace healthcare is offered for a price by less than sixty percent of businesses employing five hundred people, or more. The cost of healthcare is the prime reason why companies are opting not to offer healthcare to its employees. Hospitals are raising the cost of healthcare by five to six percent each year. Healthcare Administrators add to the cost of providing healthcare. Obviously we can’t continue to accept the spiraling cost of healthcare. Everyone is suffering from the cost and loss of healthcare.
The solution is easy! It is very easy, if you are into socialism. American is a melting pot of the world when it comes to the number of racially identifiable groups of people living in one country. So it stands to reason that socialism could survive within a democratic system of things if we all could agree that healthcare is in trouble and we all know that healthcare is in big trouble. We need to reduce cost, extend healthcare to ‘everyone’, no matter their status in life, and grandfather all healthcare issues particular to anyone needing healthcare.
How so we accomplish all of the above and keep the cost of healthcare down? How do we extend healthcare to all, no matter their status, without putting all of our hospitals out of business? The answer is simple – pool all of the money spent to buy healthcare into one massive healthcare system. Regulate all of the pharmaceutical companies. Regulate all of the fees for procedures performed by physicians. Limit the profits made by hospitals.
Here is how I envision the Healthcare System of the future…
1. Hospitals will accept all patients entering their doors. The quality of healthcare shall not diminish.
a. Liability for mal-practice will be set and uniform
b. Hospitals will be graded for healthcare nonconformance
c. The Healthcare System shall subsidize initial and continuing educational needs of the Medical professionals under contract to work for the Healthcare System.
2. Pharmaceutical companies will reduce the cost to hospitals for their products to standards set by the government.
a. Research for new pharmaceuticals will be subsidized by the healthcare system in conjunction with the government’s Department of Internal Revenue service.
b. Reduced prices for bulk orders of pharmaceuticals shall reflect the final cost to hospitals and consumers.
3. Healthcare Administrators shall administer the different healthcare plans as before, but be supervised and regulated by the Department of Health Care.
4. The Department of Health Care shall subsidize the operating cost of the Universal Healthcare System where necessary to stabilize the system.
How the new Healthcare System will work…
All companies currently providing healthcare to their employees will be given open-house to opt into the new system and receive the following reduction to their healthcare cost:
1. Employee participation fees will be collected and forwarded to the governing body that oversees the day-to-day operations of the healthcare Administrators.
2. All companies opting into the new system will pay a yearly fee based upon the number of employees on their payroll upon entry and at the end of their calendar. Only employees that have worked for six months, or more in that calendar year can be counted to calculate the company’s annual fee. The more employees working for the company, the greater reduction in the annual fee.
3. The Department of Health Care shall provide start-up cost for the transition from private healthcare to government over-sight healthcare.
Employees will have the choice of type of healthcare plan they wish to select. Employees will bear the cost of any plan selected over and above the standard healthcare plan normally provided by the Subsidized Healthcare System.
Those persons not gainfully employed shall received standard healthcare as provided by the healthcare System. Those persons whom are self-employed shall pay a fee for services in accordance with their annual income. No one can be denied healthcare for any reason.
Medicare and Medicaid shall be incorporated into the Healthcare System in accordance with the rules and directives that apply in the Employee/Employer relationship with providers taking on the responsibilities that an employer would have in each instance.
This system is self-sustaining if the unemployment rate remains low. The level of expertise is enhanced by encouraging all healthcare providers to upgrade the level of education of all healthcare workers.
I would encourage those reading this article to offer any advice that would enhance the probability of this type of healthcare plan actually succeeding if it were to be put in place. We thank you in advance…
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Meeting the Demand for Universal Health Care
As a child, my grandmother told me to always protect my health because if you lose your health all the money in the world can’t get it back. I never forgot what my Grandmother told me. I, by the grace of God, don’t have the problem that a lot of my neighbors are facing on a daily basis – what will I do if I am diagnosed with a malady that requires hospitalization?
After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that the solution is simple and won’t really cost anyone anymore than what they are currently paying for healthcare; in fact, everyone could see a reduction in the overall cost of their healthcare. In addition, those currently not possessing any healthcare will be able to afford healthcare as well. You are probably thinking that this guy is crazy. There is no way that we can have national healthcare without government involvement in a monetary manner.
Under the plan that I propose individuals and families without healthcare will no longer have to visit the emergency room to receive medical treatment. Hospitals and all other healthcare providers will be reimbursed for services rendered in a timely fashion. The standard rate for procedures provided by care-givers would be upheld. Pharmaceuticals will have to adhere to a standardized pricing of their products; in return, the pharmaceutical industry will be encouraged to subsidize all research for the products that they develop to a regulated Internal Revenue division where there submissions will be scrutinized for fraud and abuse.
Now you ask; how do we do it? Let’s review first the general methods used to compensate healthcare services for patient care given. In most instances, companies deduct small amounts of money from each of its workers to assist in making payments to healthcare insurers like Blue Cross-Blue Shield, CareFirst, or Kaiser Permanente, etc. In turn, healthcare providers, your doctor and the hospital that you may be sent to in case of an emergency, file claims against your healthcare insurance for the care they provided to you.
What if – I am about to tell you how my plan would work – all of the companies that pay money directly into healthcare insurance companies like the afore-mentioned instead paid their money directly into a national fund? What if that national fund brokered directly with healthcare providers to get you the best rates for the best care available? What if all of the people that live in the United States could access this healthcare insurance simply by going to the nearest facility to them for their healthcare needs.
Blue Cross-Blue Shield, CareFirst, and all other healthcare insurance providers will be eliminated from the healthcare equation to reduce the cost of healthcare. The confusion of having to fill out a multitude of forms and the fear of being rejected care vital to your recovering from any illness will be a thing of the pass. Pharmaceutical companies will no longer be able to dictate the cost of your medications – pricing some medications out of reach for you based upon the decision of your healthcare insurance provider.
Hospitals have failed for the same reasons that this plan will remedy. The uninsured are flooding the emergency rooms for care with no reimbursement to the provider. The sick have had to decide whether to buy their medicine over buying food for the table. Terminally ill patients have been denied care that would have made the difference in how they lived their remaining days, in some instances, care that could have saved their lives. This plan can remedy these situations forever.
Congress, are you listening?
After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that the solution is simple and won’t really cost anyone anymore than what they are currently paying for healthcare; in fact, everyone could see a reduction in the overall cost of their healthcare. In addition, those currently not possessing any healthcare will be able to afford healthcare as well. You are probably thinking that this guy is crazy. There is no way that we can have national healthcare without government involvement in a monetary manner.
Under the plan that I propose individuals and families without healthcare will no longer have to visit the emergency room to receive medical treatment. Hospitals and all other healthcare providers will be reimbursed for services rendered in a timely fashion. The standard rate for procedures provided by care-givers would be upheld. Pharmaceuticals will have to adhere to a standardized pricing of their products; in return, the pharmaceutical industry will be encouraged to subsidize all research for the products that they develop to a regulated Internal Revenue division where there submissions will be scrutinized for fraud and abuse.
Now you ask; how do we do it? Let’s review first the general methods used to compensate healthcare services for patient care given. In most instances, companies deduct small amounts of money from each of its workers to assist in making payments to healthcare insurers like Blue Cross-Blue Shield, CareFirst, or Kaiser Permanente, etc. In turn, healthcare providers, your doctor and the hospital that you may be sent to in case of an emergency, file claims against your healthcare insurance for the care they provided to you.
What if – I am about to tell you how my plan would work – all of the companies that pay money directly into healthcare insurance companies like the afore-mentioned instead paid their money directly into a national fund? What if that national fund brokered directly with healthcare providers to get you the best rates for the best care available? What if all of the people that live in the United States could access this healthcare insurance simply by going to the nearest facility to them for their healthcare needs.
Blue Cross-Blue Shield, CareFirst, and all other healthcare insurance providers will be eliminated from the healthcare equation to reduce the cost of healthcare. The confusion of having to fill out a multitude of forms and the fear of being rejected care vital to your recovering from any illness will be a thing of the pass. Pharmaceutical companies will no longer be able to dictate the cost of your medications – pricing some medications out of reach for you based upon the decision of your healthcare insurance provider.
Hospitals have failed for the same reasons that this plan will remedy. The uninsured are flooding the emergency rooms for care with no reimbursement to the provider. The sick have had to decide whether to buy their medicine over buying food for the table. Terminally ill patients have been denied care that would have made the difference in how they lived their remaining days, in some instances, care that could have saved their lives. This plan can remedy these situations forever.
Congress, are you listening?
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