What The People Want in Reform

This is not particularly complicated, and you'd think that certain simple reform measures could be accomplished without one dime of taxpayer money being spent. Of course, you might have to annoy some special interests in order to actually serve the people.

Here is my list:

1) Lower cost insurance (at least catastrophic coverage should be available inexpensively for everyone, but especially the young and healthy that don't want to spend money on a lot of other frills they have no use for).

2) Portability--meaning that your health insurance should NOT be tied to your job. This requires that "groups" are eliminated and that all individuals in an insurance company's entire portfolio are the only "group" that is recognized (which happens to be true, though for some reason we've all bought into the thought that our "group" was a company, a union, or something. This is what has made buying insurance so difficult for individuals and small businesses. It's arbitrary and counterproductive. See THIS post.) Also, if you are already insured and you want to change your coverage, the insurance company could not drop you for de-selecting certain menu items (for example, if you lose your job, you may want to keep the insurance the company was paying for, but, given you are now unemployed, you may need to drop back on your deductables until you are employed again to lower the cost).

3) No dropping people because they get sick, or actually use their insurance.

4) Insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. Obviously, some conditions are more major than others. I would have no problem some things simply being waved, as long as they can be covered with some other mechanism, such as a high risk rider policy that covers only that condition--all other conditions are charged under the "normal" policy, or perhaps an insurance cooperative that is funded by insurance companies and an extra fee by the client. Someone with a severe pre-existing condition (like cancer), should definitely be able to find a secondary insurance source specifically tailored to that condition. This could take some thinking, but I'd think that it would not be too difficult to figure out a way to do it without it becoming a government program.

5) Provide the same tax break to an individual paying for their insurance as a company gets. (Note that the company would only provide the insurance as a sort of convenience, because the policy would be portable with the employee, not tied to the job).

6) Tort Reform! Take a bunch of cost OUT of healthcare in one sweep.

7) Allow policies to be sold across state lines.

8) Disallow state mandates of what must be covered so that people could choose from a menu of items beginning with high deductable catastrophic coverage, then increasing in price as more items are added. For example, a gold-plated package might include everything from catastrophic coverage with no deductable, to office visits for the sniffles, where a mid-range plan might have a lower deductible on emergency room visits and catastrophic care, but you're paying out of pocket for your check-ups. I'm certain that, if forced to do it, insurance companies could come up with a great set of options that appeal to people and also allow them to be profitable.

This simple list would end up with more people covered by insurance (because it's cheaper). Frankly, I wouldn't even mind a mandate that people have at least catastrophic coverage. I don't like that kind of interference with personal choice, but if the cost was low enough, it could be like the mandate that you carry some form of auto insurance to drive. It would also make insurance just as affordable for the self-employed as the large corporation, because there would be no difference (no "group" to worry about).

It seems to me that THIS is all the majority of people want. They want security without having to pay through the nose for it. They don't want the government involved in it, other than setting some rules that work to favor the individual. Why should this be so difficult?