Guest MINDSETTER ™ Berwick:  A Healthcare Reform Plan That Works For Everyone

Monday, August 17, 2015

Guest MINDSETTER ™ Kenneth Berwick

 

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Each state in the United States could design a healthcare plan that would cover all its residents and reduce healthcare costs.  This could be done because each state regulates the insurance industries that do business within their borders.

First, the high cost of preexisting conditions and catastrophic health care problems has to be solved.  Funding to help reduce this high cost could be raised by using the fire, theft and damage insurance industry.   Almost every property owner in Rhode Island buys a fire, theft and damage insurance policy to cover the property they own.  The number of home owners, business owners and property renters in Rhode Island who buy these insurance policies is huge.   

Rhode Island could require each fire, theft and damage insurance company doing business in the state to put a yearly one dollar surcharge on each thousand dollars of property valuation be paid to Rhode Island to cover the cost of preexisting conditions and catastrophic health care problems.  An average Rhode Island couple with two young children, two four year old cars who rent a three bedroom apartment might pay $60.00 per year.  The same couple with a $250.000 home in Lincoln might pay $350.00 per year.  The same couple with a $2,000,000.00 home on the water in Westerly might pay $4,000.00 per year.  This surcharge could raise over fifty million dollars each year in Rhode Island.  Each insurance company would immediately deposit these surcharges in a selected Rhode Island banking institution in order to draw as much interest as possible.  

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Rhode Island and the federal government could match these funds.  Over 150 million dollars would be available each year to help cover the cost of preexisting conditions and catastrophic healthcare problems.  A 20% reduction of the cost of each healthcare insurance policy would be possible.  A large company with 100 employees could save $150,000.00 in their health care cost per year.  Property taxes in each city and town in Rhode Island could be dramatically reduced because of reductions in their healthcare costs.   

Because only individuals who have healthcare coverage would be able to access the above mentioned funds, every Rhode Island resident would see the value of signing up for public or private healthcare coverage.   

Rhode Island could further allow all healthcare insurance companies to compete for Rhode Island's healthcare insurance needs, allow companies to join together to reduce their insurance costs, allow healthcare savings accounts and allow families and individuals to deduct their healthcare insurance costs from their state and federal income tax returns. 

Each healthcare insurance company would also be allowed to offer a variety of plans that fit the needs of the buyer.  In addition, the federal government would be encouraged to provide no strings attached healthcare block grants to each state, based on each state's population, to help cover the costs of state and privately sponsored low cost healthcare clinics, Medicaid, low income children's healthcare insurance and Medicare.  

Once the above requirements have been implemented, the cost of a regular healthcare insurance policy would be reduced even more.  All large businesses and most small businesses would be able to offer healthcare insurance to their employees and many other working Rhode Islanders would be able to afford to buy a regular healthcare insurance policy that fits their budget needs.        

Medicare costs would be reduced because each elderly person would be covered for preexisting conditions and catastrophic healthcare problems.   Medicaid costs and low income children's insurance costs would be reduced because many low income individuals and families would be able to afford to buy high quality private healthcare insurance.  The number of uninsured residents in Rhode Island would be extremely low.  Almost all residents of Rhode Island would see the value of buying a healthcare insurance plan that fits their budget needs because they would be covered for preexisting conditions and catastrophic healthcare problems. This would greatly increase the amount of money that each healthcare insurance company has available each year to pay for their healthcare costs.  This would allow each healthcare insurance company to lower the cost of each policy they sell to compete with other healthcare insurance companies for business. 

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Kenneth Berwick of Smithfield, RI Served three years in the United States Marine Corps from 1954-1957. Berwick is a retired teacher with a BA from RIC in 1960 and a Masters from Syracuse in 1969.

 

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