The Solution for the National (universal) Healthcare Crisis
First the reason: It has nothing to do with whether or not we should have national healthcare from a social or philosophical standpoint. It is pure economics, and I hope that everyone on most sides will agree with it's benefits, if they can get past the first paragraph. We MUST get the cost of healthcare OUT of our products if we are going to compete globally with countries that provide national healthcare. $1,500 of every car built by GM is for healthcare costs. When GM tries to sell a car overseas, it is $1,500 more expensive than the competition. Likewise for every foreign manufacturer -- the cost of healthcare is not included in the price here in the US. This puts US manufacturers at a huge disadvantage relative to our competition. I'll come back to the GM example in a bit. So how do we tackle this problem? I know how. But it's going to take a bit to explain HOW to implement it, so hang in there with me. First I'll give you the endpoint -- in other words at some point we'll be at this solution. Take it for granted that I have an implementation plan, so don't worry about that yet. This plan will be designed to be approximately "revenue neutral" so it won't cost anything more than it costs now, but there will be some exceptions that will be addressed later. Again, bear with me on the details, let's keep on the concept first. We do it with a National Sales Tax (NST). Remember that $1,500 disadvantage a GM car is at when competing against say, Germany? The cost of a US car sold here will be approximately the same. The amount of NST collected will be similar to the amount of health insurance paid for by the company. The cost of a US car sold overseas will be $1,500 less, as the cost of healthcare is removed from the base price of the car, and the NST will not be collected on foreign sales. The cost of an imported car will go up $1,500 because of the NST. This will now level the playing field between US car manufacturers and foreign car manufacturers who have been eating our lunch with this hidden government subsidy of their vehicles. The nice thing about NST on foreign cars sold in the US (if there can ever be a nice thing about a tax increase) is that instead of sending all of your money overseas, you will be paying for health insurance for US (U.S.) residents. Implementation of NST. Our economy is SOOO complex that implementation will need to be done in a phased approach. Implementation strategy could go on for days, so I will give a very brief outline. I suggest that NST could be implemented first for just the car industry alone. A small percent (2 or 3%) NST could be added to the car, with all revenues returned to the companies that provide health insurance to their employees/retirees, and to the employees/retirees of those companies on their tax returns for their share of the cost. Setting this amount in advance will allow for companies to plan to lower their prices to their dealerships, and to do it in a gradual way. The percentage will increase yearly until the necessary amount is reached. Employees/retirees must still pay something and be given choice of plans to help insure that there is viable competition in the insurance industry. (Increasing health insurance transparency and competition is a whole other subject.) Eventually when expanded to the entire economy, people will be covered financially for a good, basic insurance policy by the NST. People below a certain line would be given a tax credit in advance for some/all NST paid, perhaps even having the employer (if any) paying a credit weekly into their paychecks. People who are wealthy could afford to buy additional insurance (similar to Canada's upgrade insurances) or just pay out of pocket for "special services". This will get us to the point where we can understand how to implement an NST across the economy and cover all our people. The NST can be different amounts for different categories of products. The more labor in a product, the more healthcare costs. This brings together people who are "pro business" with people who are "pro universal health care", with people who are interested in progressive taxation as people who consume more will pay a lot more into the healthcare system in NST. There will be some who object. Importers will bear the brunt of the policy. Prices will go up at WalMart for foreign goods by the amount of the NST. People married to a single-payer system will object, even though this process will make their objective closer somewhat closer as the government will already have a means by which to collect the monies necessary to phase in a single payor system, if that's where the country wants to go. Again, I have thought for a long time about this, and there is still lots of thinking to be done by people smarter than I. I have given only a small bit of the idea for this as it would go on and on and on. It is a complex issue, and even though I see this as a first step in order to reduce the complexity of a broad implementation while simultaneously giving an ENORMOUS boost to our auto and manufacturing industries, that's why I fear it can never be adopted. But I can dream. Food for thought. |
|
|
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|