Insurance free health care in Dayton?
Yesterday, I talked about Quality of Life- and what could we do differently in Dayton that would give us a competitive advantage over other communities in recruiting people to move here.
Here’s an idea: since we have a duopoly in health insurance- with United Health Care and Anthem, and a duopoly in health care- in Premier Health Partners and Kettering Health Network- why don’t we just, as a community, cut out the insurance half?
Everybody is eventually going to have to buy insurance- or have health care, imagine if we just paid a flat fee per month to either Kettering or Premier (or better yet- a single fund)- and we skip the whole insurance middle man thing.
Health providers are constantly complaining about the low “reimbursement rates” from insurers and Medicare/Medicaid- so, we come up with a simple plan that cuts at least the insurers out. I’d also prefer if we started paying the doctors for keeping their clients healthy- instead of paying for procedures. We could have a community focused on healthy living- including healthy diets, healthy food, healthy offerings at restaurants etc.
The money saved by having a healthier community due to awesome preventive health care would lead to greater productivity and a higher standard of living.
As part of the condition- the hospitals would have to agree to operate like non-profits- with no huge salaries for administrators. Since the new health care provisions in “Obama Care” restrict the insurance companies to take no more than 20% for overhead- we’d have to have some kind of community-based oversight- to make sure that our health goals are being met.
I’d rather give my money to a doctor than an insurance company to manage my health care for me- wouldn’t you?
The real question is are the hospitals willing to take the challenge that creating a healthy community can beat the hell out of fighting with insurers for every nickel and dime for procedure-based medicine.
Considering that the insurance companies pay their people at the top way better than the health providers- it should be a no brainer to cut them out of the money.
One caveat that the hospitals probably won’t like- is that they’d have to go to a single price system- offering procedures at the same rate- insurance or no-insurance, but the savings in administrative costs alone ought to make it worthwhile. No more collection agencies- no more billing nightmares.
Who knows- maybe we could become the mecca of medical tourism in the US with this innovative approach.
Remember- we did teach the world to fly- maybe we can teach the insurance companies how to go fly a kite.
Everybody is eventually going to have to buy insurance- or have health care….(David Esrati)
….and eventually, dear David, the San Andreas fault will crack making Las Vegas a port city and the Andromeda Galaxy will descend from the heavens and collide with the Milky Way, triggering intergalactic chaos of Biblical proportion. But the Old Bandito is willing to bet either one of these calamities will happen before the American people acquiesce to the forced purchase of health insurance, or anything else for that matter. In case you’ve forgotten, dear David, a handful of federal judges have stricken down this provision; a House majority of Democrats were bum rushed for passing the legislation, and a seething, pissed-off and spontaneous mass movement sprung up almost overnight with the stated purpose of stopping this government over-reach. Better to start with a more plausible premise, dear David, such as Dayton becoming the research hub in pursuit of cold fusion…..
@Ice, What does this mean:?- “Dayton becoming the research hub in pursuit of cold fusion…”
Hospitals already have their own insurance for the poor people who come into ER and wait a million years for service–unless they are dying, then sometimes they get treated and released the same day! Or if they are having a baby, then it’s free, too!
So David is in essence advocating a single-payer health care system, or OTOH a highly regulated private system? That’s good. In the first case we become more like France or Canada, getting better results for half the price; in the second case like Germany, getting better results for half the price.
Funny how Ice Bandit can’t see the facts. Go on with ya Bandit; you probably think dentists cause cavities.
@icebandit- I suggest you eat your words. You mock me saying “Everybody is eventually going to have to buy insurance- or have health care”
try buying insurance past age 65 in this country- you get government health coverage through medicare.
We pay through the nose for what passes as health care in this country- mostly because we let the mob (the insurers) take a “scrape” for themselves. Either you buy “insurance” as the mob calls it- or you’ll pay a lot more.
It’s a shakedown that should be illegal. Wake the frak up.
Miami Valley Hospital IS a nonprofit! It was founded around 1888 as a “charitable hospital” under the name Dayton’s Protestant Deaconesses Society. Here is a link on the Ohio Sec. of State’s website for the original Articles of Incorporation: http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/reports/rwservlet?imgc&Din=A047_1414. It takes a minute to load the PDF.
Just because it’s legally a nonprofit, doesn’t mean the execs & professionals don’t get huge salaries. Just look at the Dayton Development Coalition, also a nonprofit.
The hospital financial program for un and underinsured low-income people is Care Assurance. I’m not sure if it’s a state-funded mandate or part of the hospital’s mission.
Hospitals will never willingly agree to charge a single price for everyone, with or without insurance. It’s too lucrative to keep going the way they have.
RE Healthy Communities: The responsibility does not lie solely with medical professionals & hospitals. Citizens need to take responsibility for making healthy choices. If Medicaid were more restricted (drop deadbeat sperm and egg donors) and illegal drug urinalysis required for benefits, some would be coerced into making better choices, or they would lose their government-provided taxpayer-financed healthcare. This would alleviate some of the strain on the system and perhaps is a better first-step toward accessible healthcare for all responsible citizens.
@GFD–I lost you here … Medicaid is a great insurance: My mom’s monthyl bill to stay at Bethany Lutheran is $10grand! Medicaid pays it all! Could you elaborate on your statement below! Medicaid pays for egg donors, or they pay the donors?
If Medicaid were more restricted (drop deadbeat sperm and egg donors) and illegal drug urinalysis required for benefits, some would be coerced into making better choices, or they would lose their government-provided taxpayer-financed healthcare. This would alleviate some of the strain on the system and perhaps is a better first-step toward accessible healthcare for all responsible citizens.
@Ice–I’m still waiting for your answer to explain your comment on Dayton being a research hub?????
Like the sentiment though doubt a municipality (maybe Ohio could with better leadership) could wing it. Bottom line:
Get
Rid
Of
Profiteering
Insurance
Companies!
Medicare for ALL!
See great YouTube making the case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv4Aos-TBH8&feature=player_embedded#at=234
@ Gary: when I said egg & sperm donors, I meant deadbeat biological mothers & fathers who do not live with nor support their children, at least minimally, by working when they are physically and mentally capable, and paying child support in some form. I refer to them as “donors” because some are far from being parents, which requires no biological connection. Yet the Medicaid law, as written, provides “free” healthcare to deadbeats simply because they are the low-income biological “parent” of some minor child(ren), whether or not the deadbeats actually support their children or are a residential parent.
I also think mandatory drug testing should be required of all public assistance recipients. Those testing negative would not lose any benefits. Those testing positive for illegal substances or prescription drugs for which they have no prescription would be removed from Medicaid. That leaves some Medicaid recipients two choices: quit drugs and use the money to support your kids, or lose your “free” healthcare, food stamps, Section 8, and whatever other benefits the government hands out. This is not a silver bullet budget solver. It is one way to reduce government expenditures and quite possibly force some to take responsibility for their actions.
Make sense now?
@ John: As a Medicare recipient, I do support Medicare for all, including paid politicians. Medicare doesn’t pay for everything like Medicaid does, but it sure does help and is probably the best possible solution brough forward so far.
….so besides health insurance, dear David, is there anything else Uncle Sam should force his citizens to buy? Mocking you, dear David? Hardly. Just reminding you that the Obamacare you portray as a fait accompli is itself on life support and flat-lining with a “Do Not Resuscitate” order by the electorate. Forget the fact that Uncle Sam is so broke he can’t pay attention, and ignore the dubious constitutionality of national health care, these “reforms” were unsolicited and unwanted and resented. But it did, however dear David, manage to radicalize millions of Baby-Boomers who would have been content spending the last two summers watching such rock neanderthals as REO Speedwagon at the Fraze. And when the organizing, Tea-Partying and voting was done, over 700 Democrat officeholders got the bums’ rush, and the Old Bandito is a sucker for happy endings……
….Gary. Back in the 1980s, two respected scientists at the University of Utah announced the discovery of Cold Fusion, which without going deeply into the physics of the issue, was going to usher in an era of cheap and safe energy. Of course the media went into overdrive hyping the finding, only to discover later that the results were at best a misunderstanding at at worst a fraud. Yet despite the fact that scientists have been unable to replicate the Utah scientists claims after 30 years, a hardcore cult of believers still try to produce cold fusion. Suggesting Dayton become the hub of such research was a metaphor for pursuing hopeless agendas, like establishing a Dayton Center for Unicorn Husbandry. But metaphors are like jokes; if ya’ gotta’ explain them…….
Thank You Ice and Gone for breaking your messages down for me; I’m 50 years old, stuck in stasis I guess between generations … But I’m happy my parents are doing ok, both on Medicare!
All I’ve seen most of my life is a struggling economy, and it’s very bad right now, too; it’s hard to work with people anymore, if that makes sense … Lots of grouchy folks it seems! My dad who is 83 said it wasn’t so bad in Dayton when he worked; but he hated the farmwork growing up!
Pigs may fly some day…