Single payer health insurance won't sell. The time is not right, the people don't care.
So it's time to think outside of the box. It's time Democrats stop complaining about not being able to sell European style socialist programs here in the United States, and instead focus on innovative/creative solutions for the problems which are plaguing Americans.
Like John Kerry's new healthcare relief plan.
The
Washington Post today offers a good analysis of the catastrophic relief portion of that plan.
John Kerry's plan involves primarily controlling the spiraling costs of healthcare. As the Post notes, it is estimated even by right-wing hacks like Glenn Hubbard that every 1% increase in insurance premiums results in an additional 300,000 people no longer being insured. By controlling the costs, and reducing them, this will incent and encourage a greater number of Americans to get back on the insured list.
John Kerry's plan has a number of key points, but chief among them in my opinion is the catastrophic illness reinsurance program, which would take some of the highly volatile high-risk expenses and cover them at the Govt level. So expenses in excess of $50,000 wouldn't be pushed back to the employer in higher premiums, requiring them to focus on the more typical day to day health issues facing employees.
The other key point is cutting administrative costs. 25% of health care costs today is spent on non-medical, or rather the administrative. We will cut these costs by moving to electronic medical records, and using more advanced systems for handling insurance claims.
There have been numerous reports out in the news of doctor's offices rejecting all insurance programs and moving to cash-only... and finding that they reduce their costs tremendously, allowing them to focus more on the patient and less on the red ink. One such report from Seattle
It's a good move, and it's a start. It makes progress and moves us forward rather than bogging us down in the muck of arguments over socialism, versus doing nothing at all.
I've long advocated that the solution for America is not to do the same thing as Europe, but rather to think differently and come up with something which is unique to America while achieveing the same goals. John Kerry's plan may not get us all the way to Universal Coverage, but it's a step in that direction and that's much better than the Status Quo.