Health Care Lawyer Blog

The Presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, have both proposed forms of "Universal Health Care." However, both plans, and those of the previous candidates, appear to address coverage for the 43,000,000 uninsured Americans--mostly children. little is discussed about the under-insured or those who become uninsured when they lose their jobs. Nor is anything mentioned about eliminating the "600 pound gorilla" in the room with every American employer who is seeing health care benefit payments rising at far more than the cost of inflation.

However, there may be an easy solution--if we had the political will to solve the issue.

We could get the government essentially out of the medical insurance business that Medicare, Medicaid and Tri-Care represent. We could provide every American the same type of coverage that the members of Congress, and their families enjoy. We could relieve every employer in the country of the burden of health care costs.

And we could do this without a painful tax increase or loss of income for the medical providers.

So what's the catch?

There is none, say Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., PhD., an oncologist, author of No Margin, No Mission, and president of the Posterity Project and Victor R. Fuchs, the Henry J. Kaiser Jr professor emeritus at Stanford University, in their 2005 White Paper, Solved! It covers everyone. It cuts costs. It can get through Congress. Why Universal Health Care Vouchers is the next big idea..

Ezekiel and Fuchs plan envisions a mandatory voucher system providing every American access to the "Rolls Royce" health care protection every member of Congress enjoys, administered by private insurance companies and allowing free choice of providers. Government's only role will be to set up the system, oversee its operation with an independent board, modeled on the Federal Reserve Board, collect the money to pay for the program, through a value-added tax and mailing out the vouchers once a year--like Income Tax refunds.

The details of the system, and the ease of implementation and execution are set forth in their White Paper, but it is clear, as they point out, that the proposal deserves respect and consideration because it meets the obvious goals of any proposal for "health care reform:".

1. Every American is covered,
2. The program is largely paid for by cutting fraud, waste and abuse in the present system--something that has been calculated to be as high as 20% of the present $2 Trillion expense.
3. It reduces the rate of cost increases in the future..
4. The plan will provide more rather than less choice.
5. We will become more productive because of it.
6. Government bureaucracy will be decreased .
7. It will offer much to many interest groups.

Read the plan and let me know how you feel about it---and why you haven't heard of it?