Sane Health Care Solutions

All we keep hearing about is the need for national health care. Unfortunately, the government has never been a very good steward of our hard earned money. And we all know that when the government gives birth to a new program, that program's life expectancy will far exceed that of any American citizen.

I'm just another blogger, but I also have a lot of experience in the insurance industry and I am very aware of the high price of health care and health insurance. What I'd like to hear from our politicians are more ideas for making health insurance more affordabe for American citizens, rather than bankrupting our children and grandchildren with a new entitlement program.

I've come across several ideas, that if taken together, seem to be quite promising. The first is the Heath Care Choice Act, sponsored by Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ). http://johnshadegg.house.gov/news/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=80722

This bill would allow consumers to compare insurance policies from across the country, rather than restricting them to the state where they live. I live in NY and if I were to purchase a policy for myself and my family it would cost more than $12000 per year. Wouldn't it be nice if I could go out of state and find a similar policy for 30% to 40% less? I sure think so.

Another way to help bring down the costs of health care is to put a cap on punitive awards in medical malpractice claims. All of the trial lawyers naturally hate this idea. But when medical care providers' malpractice premiums are astronomical they have to pass that cost along to the consumers.

And what about health savings accounts? In my last job they offered HSA's but you had to re-enroll every year, and any money left in the HSA at the end of the year was forfeited. That makes no sense to me. Why can't we set up HSA's like we do IRA's and 401k's and make them portable? Imagine the amount of money a young person could build up in an HSA over the course of his career? An HSA in conjunction with a high deductible health policy would be a very affordable option for a young healthy person.

These are just a few ideas I have found that seem to make sense. Why aren't all of the politicians embracing these ideas and finding ways to make them work? I can only believe that it is because these plans would take the power away from the politicians and put it back in the hands of the people.