If I was the President. Part 1 - National Health Care Reform

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Sep 01, 2009
Here is my bullet point National Health Care Plan:


* Mandate creation of a National Health Insurance plan provided through private sector insurance companies.

* Cost of each National Health Care policy covering a US permanent legal resident paid by the Federal Government.

* Convert all current government health care recipients (Medicare, Medicaid, Government Employee) to the new plan.

* Set minimum standards, coverage and maximum cost for all plans qualified as National Health Insurance.

* Include full wellness, preventive care, prenatal, pregnancy and complications due to pregnancy coverage.

* Also, include preventive and basic restorative dental, as well as vision benefits with no out of pocket costs.

* Allow individuals to choose their health care insurance company from qualified providers.

* Disallow consideration of all preexisting conditions in issuing National Health Insurance policies.

* Allow insurance riders to be purchased by individuals to provide additional or better coverage.

* Require drug companies to offer minimum prices available to other national plans for all drugs sold in the US.

* Take employers out of the health care game - tax the value of every insurance benefit same as cash compensation.

* Convert Medicare tax to a National Health Insurance tax and set a flat % rate to cover all anticipated costs.


A National Health Insurance plan as outlined above would be reasonable, fair, cost effective and self sustaining. It would also solve most every issue associated with today's broken system. In addition, it would provide truly universal coverage for basic needs and remove a major disincentive for having kids - population growth is very important for USA's future.


Of course, any time you fix problems, remove redundancies and adjust tax rates, you will upset those who loose their unneeded jobs, loose benefits that they should have never had and start paying their "fair share." Well organized vested beneficiaries are the biggest problem with pushing through meaningful health care reform. By giving in to their unreasonable demands and creating plans around their concerns, we create new problems, instead of solving current ones. In order to succeed, Mr. Obama and the Congress must put National Interests ahead of any personal ambitions, popularity concerns and political "realities."