Organizing for America | James Chirico's Blog: Lets Break Them

Lets Break Them

By James from Brooklyn, NY - Jul 21st, 2009 at 7:41 pm EDT

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Too big a swallow was taken in the healthcare bill which closely resembled the failing Deval Patrick plan. Set the example by using one state to have a government run healthcare plan compete with the private. Get all municipal, non-profit and self care private companies like Target buying their pharmaceuticals, supplies, insurance, facility maintenance under one buyer/coordinator. Maximize facility use by directing testing to their facilities only, unless they are unable. Uninsured working or unemployed Americans can buy in for the per capita cost as well as small businesses with less than 25 employees. Contract with medical school students for $150,000/yr, basis 50 hour week, 401K, with insurance paid for 10 years with COLA increases to increase GPs and lock in costs. Start with NY that has a glut of doctors and medical personell. Set payments per Physicians for National Health Care schedule. Done right the costs will be half of what is paid to insurance companies. A small co-pay of $5 should be there to discourage overuse with medicaid paying it for people below the poverty line. Try it for a year and then when stimulus jobs hit their height go national. 25% co-payments for glasses/contacts, dental care, podiatry and accupunture would lower costs a few percent. A full physical at least every five years must be taken to stay enrolled. Hospital emergency rooms should be able to send their triage low priority patients to these facilities with a 10% commission to the hospital for the insured and 50/50 split with hospital for the uninsured. Doctors within the state self insure, with a state medical board to look at malpractice awards to weed out the inept and set doctor rates. The government will guarantee any shortfall in the doctors fund. Let religious run hospitals and facilities participate and do not force them to provide contraceptives or choice (paying for sin in their eyes), but make these services available for people in the network. Mayor Bloomberg will probably cooperate bigtime in this effort, as NYC has a low utilization rate for it's numerous facilities. Get coverage done for $5000 per member family and the privates can't compete. Take a large step before you leap will light the way for the rest of the country with an excellent test case, having rural, small town, suburb, big cities, and even native americans for the test.

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