A Truly Bipartisan Health Care Reform Proposal
Let's cut right to it:
The Republicans are crying foul about a lack of bipartisanship while they are not ones to be complaining. If the shoe was on the other foot, no one can claim the Republicans would even attempt to be bipartisan. The Democrats are at least providing some opportunity for bipartisanship. Their recent suggestion that they might go it alone comes after months of trying to involve the Republicans. That may be the most feasible thing to do now, but leaving politics out of it, the following would be a truly bipartisan proposal:
Democratic ideas:
1. National health insurance exchange,
2. Public option on a level playing field with private insurance similar to the one laid out by Captin Sarcastic here
3. Guaranteed issue (no preexisting condition discrimination)
4. Individual mandate for catastrophic insurance
5. Allow Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices with the drug companies (if not consolidated below in #3 below)
6. Voucher for semiannual physicals to all citizens
7. Allow prescription drug importation from Canada
Republican ideas:
1. Allowing people to buy insurance for what they see fit by abolishing mandates (such as mandating alcohol treatment, in vitro fertilization, etc... be bought when buying insurance)
2. Allow insurance to be bought across state lines
3. Consolidate Medicaid, SCHIP, and possibly Medicare into a means-tested voucher that the recipients can use for either private insurance or the public option
4. Tax health benefits through employment as income
5. Streamline the process of putting a prescription drug on the market. Keep FDA tests for drug safety, but allow prescription drug to go on the market without an effectiveness test (the effectiveness tests would still remain for those who wish to have the FDA seal of approval)
6. Streamline the process of obtaining a medical license, keeping safety requirements
7. Enable community health clinics to be on a more level playing field
Other idea:
1. Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure. Both by insurance companies of their claim refusal rate, and by doctors, hospitals, medical services, and pharmacies of their pricing (including negotiated deals with insurance companies)
2. Require insurance companies to pay back the total of all premiums paid and interest to anyone they decide to drop, and only allow dropping if they can demonstrate that the person in question intentionally engaged in deception
I think this would be a bipartisan proposal that would solve many of our current problems. Any thoughts or suggested additions?
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