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MED-CARD
A Socialized Medical
Savings Account
- my
proposed National Health Care Plan -
by
Arthur Heyer
President
Extensions For Independence
Back to "Tips of knowledge..."
Basic medical treatment should be a right for all. This
is a plan for a type of market-driven socialized medical care.
1. Every american
citizen is to be granted a yearly fund for medical
expenses, which would be
equal to a calculated maximum allowable
health care budget,
divided by the number of american citizens,
weather living or not
living in the U.S.A.
2. The fund could be managed by a type of
"credit" card system, with
quarterly statements
given.
3. People would be encouraged to use
their fund wisely; that is, they
would demand best care at
reasonable prices.
4. People would be also encouraged to eat
well, exercise, not to smoke or
drink, etc., so as to
keep healthy and save their unused fund for real
medical emergencies.
Their un-used yearly fund would be allowed to
accumulate. By keeping
healthy, people would be able to "save" an
ever growing fund for
older age, or to share with a loved one. At the
end of his/her life, the
remainder fund would be inherited, or donated
to a charity organization
(such as the cancer society, etc.).
5. An administrative advantage of the
plan is that national health care
expense would be under
control, and available resources would be
equally shared by
everyone.
6. Insurance companies could still
provide for the excess medical care.
I faxed the 6-point proposal above to
Mrs. Clinton on Feb. 22, 1993, and later on I did receive a printed note
thanking me for my contribution.
Obviously, my proposal was too simple too
consider, and/or perhaps came too late. The machinery for the much
more sophisticated proposal was way in its course, and nobody dared to stop
it for such a simplistic solution: a complicated proposal which at
the end nobody liked or approved; surely the creation of politicians and
professionals with intricate minds full with technical detail.
A SIMPLE SOLUTION: give everybody a
"savings" account, and let each one decide how to use the
"funds". Of course, it has one condition
attached: to use it for health care only.
SEARCHING FOR FLAWS:
- there are
going to be people who will try too hard to save for the future, and not go
timely to the doctor or spend on medication. I am sure that some will
go to these extremes, but this doesn't make the system a failure. After all,
most people have normal minds and would decide reasonably, wouldn't
you? It would work well for the greater majority, and that makes it a
winner in a democratic society. Besides, like everything else, the
"extremists" will sooner or later live the results of their
behavior and learn from the experience. There will be much to learn in the
"simplistic" system. As with all that is simple, I trust
that all will be for good.
- there are the
disabled and weaker bodies who need and use more medical care than
others. This is no problem: by statistical analysis, a distribution
of funds would be made according to categories. A claim with a simple
questioner which would require let's say 3 doctors to sign would
automatically add to the patient's fund according to pre established
disability categories.
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