Like many, I'm eagerly awaiting what concrete health care proposals will emerge from the upcoming Obama administration and the Democratic Senate and Congress.
But after seeing the huge success Obama had with his small-donation campaign - basically out-funding every campaign in history - it occurred to me: can't we just do the same thing for a health-care system??
What if every single person who donated to Obama, just started paying into a health-care payment system? As a not-for-profit pool, that simply paid out costs?
Basically, how about a credit union/co-op model for health care, on a huge and national scale?
Paying into this pool wouldn't have to be be in addition to our current insurance company costs - this could be instead of it. Companies could also pay in for their employees, and get the same cheaper deal. This not-for-profit could also negotiate for lower-cost care and medication.
Setting up this sort of pool would take infrastructure, of course - but without advertising and marketing costs AND without teams of people whose sole purpose is to deny claims so the company can profit - the costs are what they should be: purely administrative.
This could even be something the Obama administration could set up, if the GOP and the insurance companies gum up the works. Who can be against citizens banding together to pay their costs for themselves?? How could they legally stop such a thing, even?
And if this way is cheaper - as it logically should be - then whether or not the rest of the nation thinks its "socialist" - they will be driven to join it too, just because it makes more sense.
We wouldn't have to wait for half the country to get over it's nonsense - we could just do it ourselves!
Yea, nay, thoughts?
Oh, and if this has already been tried on a large scale, or it might not work due to logistical or legal reasons - please list why below in the comments. I'm a neophyte - just sharing ideas, and loving to learn.