A Modest Proposal

Medicare [2005, 2006]:
37 million old folks [2005]
$324,911,000,000 spent on their medical care [2006]
not quite $9000 per person

Veterans Affairs [2007]:
5.5 million veterans
$31,510,000,000 spent on their medical care
not quite $6000 per person


Nobody wants to see the health insurance industry go belly up [well, I do]. They're taking in and throwing around a chunk of money: $227 billion last year [about $12 billion of it profit] for the 13 largest companies. The disappearance of those 13 companies alone would [theoretically] put 200,000 or so folks out of work [not entirely].

Thud! Thunk! Crash! That's the sound of free-marketeers falling over in a dead faint at the very thought. Nanny state! Socialized medicine! Government interference between a woman and her doctor!

Oh. Boo. Hoo.

So, a proposal for them [and you]: let ordinary people buy their way into their choice of either Medicare or the VA system.

How much should the government charge? It would be a challenge, but I could swing $6000/year if in return I got guaranteed coverage. In fact, that's just about what I was paying before, to the insurance company, for coverage that turned out to be useless once I reached my [$1500? I forget] out-of-pocket maximum. Funny thing, but about the same time I reached that magic out-of-pocket number, the insurance company had paid out about $5000 to my doctors, hospitals, labs, etc, at which point they started denying the rest of my claims.

It's not like any for-profit insurance company is going to offer to cover me now for $6000 or even $10,000 per year in my present state of health. What have they got to fear from uninsured and uninsurable little me?

I'm firmly of the opinion that we could and should jump right into single-payer universal health care, but until the rest of you agree with me, I would be happy to follow the Libertarian mantra and go vote with my dollars.