Please hear me out.....
With the evaporation of pensions, SSN kicking in at an older age, and changing the of bankruptcy laws, middleclass America needs Universal Healthcare. Being that Americans can no longer trust agreements between their employer; employees need the versatility that universal healthcare provides. No longer will a wife or husband have to stay at dead-end jobs just because they provide health insurance for the family. Also, no longer will the Walmarts of the world shift their healthcare cost onto taxpayers, thus having the taxpayer subsidize their business model. Universal Healthcare would create efficiencies in the market that will create economic growth for the coming decades. Lastly, we are not pitting the old against the young or the rich against the poor. Everyone wins.
Republicans have one thing right; you cannot continue to raise business entry cost for the small businessman (ie the taxbase) and continue to compete throughout the world. Universal Healthcare will allow the small businessman to compete with Conglomerates for intellectual capital because no longer will healthcare be the deciding issue.
Plan:
Use the proceeds received from SSN and Medicare to fund Universal Healthcare and payout a monthly stipend to the elderly for their cost of living (UN). UN will be a market based system using the employees portion of the SSN tax to pay their annual healthcare premiums. Unemployed individuals can file with a state agency and receive quarterly healthcare certificates that will be covered by healthcare writers in that state (its kind of like involuntary market car insurance). In addition, the other 6% to 7% paid to SSN by the company would go towards a catastrophic fund used to pay for diseases and major medical. Also, the SSN taxes will be withheld in the donut format; ie taxes will be withheld for incomes up to $100K and then kick back in at incomes above $200K. Because the government covers catastrophic events (its like terrorism coverage), there should be approx. 5 premium classes per region of the U.S. - children, young adult, young adult married, old married, and senior citizen. Also, their will be a medical tax on unsafe consumer products. Lastly, the stipend for the elderly's day to day expenses can be based on a state's cost of living percentage.
This program would have to be a partnership between the federal and state governments. Funding and procedures are written at the federal level, while operations and some funding are handled at the state level.
This is just a skeleton of an idea and there are a lot variables that need to be thought thu, however, America is filled with bright minds.