The Problem with healthcare in America
Good healthcare is not fully available to all Americans and is becoming unaffordable to many. The CDC has estimated that 90% of the US annual healthcare expenditures is for people with chronic or mental health conditions. Many of these chronic conditions can be prevented or treated at lower costs with early detection or behavioral changes.
The solution
If we provide all Americans with affordable basic healthcare services on a regular basis, we should be able to detect and begin treating conditions much earlier and at lower cost than what is now being done.
Currently we have a two-class healthcare system: one for the poor that uses Medicaid and specially designed insurance pools, and one for everyone else. Separating people into first-class and second-class status has never worked out well for America or any other country.
The CSS plan eliminates this two-class system. Medicaid and many other welfare systems are replaced with national standardized private health insurance plans that everyone, regardless of income, will be able to use. Medicare and Social Security are not affected by this revised private health insurance system.
Under CSS, all private health insurance plans will fully cover basic healthcare services and catastrophic healthcare services. Basic healthcare services focus on preventive, diagnostic, and routine medical care issues. This includes checkups, vaccinations, standardized lab and diagnostic tests, and care for minor illnesses. Basic healthcare does not include services by specialists, non-diagnosis outpatient services, or hospital inpatient services. Catastrophic healthcare services cover all needed medical costs over a fixed amount set annually.
The goal of covering basic healthcare services in every plan would be to structure healthcare services in a way that detects and begins treating conditions much earlier and at lower cost than what is now being done. The goal of covering catastrophic healthcare services in every plan is to reduce the financial disaster families may incur when faced with prolonged illness.
Under the CSS plan, the federal government reimburses most, not all, private health insurance plans for the cost of basic healthcare and catastrophic healthcare services. In addition, all low-income Americans will also receive health insurance credits.
It is hoped that most employers will give their employees the option of receiving healthcare insurance credits if they do not wish to participate in the company’s health insurance plan. This means that all Americans should be able to shop for and be able to afford the private health plan that best fits their needs regardless of their employment status.
Would such a plan be economically feasible?
It is not possible to answer this question without additional research and pilot projects. However, in 2023 the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics which is part of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine reviewed current research literature to determine what the economic and social impacts of proving universal healthcare might be. They concluded: “On Balance, the economic and social impacts of implementing a universal healthcare system in the US are overwhelmingly positive.”
As of January 2024, the Buehler Center report was available on the internet as a preprint but had not been peer reviewed or published. However, it should be noted that we do spend almost twice as much per person on healthcare than our peer countries but have statistically the worst healthcare outcomes. Almost all our peer countries have some form of universal healthcare coverage.
Additional information about healthcare issues can be found in book
Questions: email David@fundingvisions.org