Excellent!

Me dino had to look that puppy up.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087925/
I used to read that strip in a galaxy far, far away a long time ago.
Think I bought my last newspaper during 2013 and that was a rare event even then.
I'm pretty sure The Birmingham News didn't go for Pogo, though.

It first and foremost starts with the principle of personal responsibility. I am responsible for me (and my family). That means what I eat, how I exercise, and if I work to cover my bills all pertain to my ongoing health and risk factors.

Part of being responsible is risk management - dealing with the potential/unexpected. That means private insurance according to one's risk factors and needs. but ONLY private enterprise can sufficiently craft a plan that maximizes my coverage while minimizing my outlays. Note that this does not mean I get to demand a Cadillac plan and pay nothing. For the same reason I purchase automobile insurance and homeowner's insurance, I purchase healthcare insurance.

Now, I do believe, however, that there should be two kinds of healthcare insurance and that much of the problem with our current system is the failure to recognize these. First, there is what should be called catastrophic insurance. That's what covers you if you find out you have cancer or get in an automobile accident. These are the rare but really expensive cases that really qualify as "insurance".

The second kind isn't really insurance at all, but health maintenance costs. These are the items people want covered under an insurance plan which aren't either catastrophic or rare: things like routine checkups at the doctor's office, getting an initial diagnosis of the flu, etc. Those shouldn't be termed insurance at all because they are routine. These items should be paid for out-of-pocket so as to reduce their actual consumption and bring it back into the realm where then products and services can be created to assist. This is where your company can purchase group services to specific doctors or groups for a negotiated rate for these basic services. (This was done a century ago.)

So that's how I'd do it.

I still Go Pogo

No, 'society as a whole' is not responsible for those in poverty. There is no entity known as 'society'. Society is just a group of individuals who choose to live in the same geographical area. As an individual if you wish to help someone who is poor out, that is your choice. It is not the governments job to force others to help them out. Healthcare is not a right, it is a service. So yes you should be responsible for covering the costs of the services that you use. Insurance companies should be free to provide you with the coverage you want or need.

Promote the idea of hospitals and other medical centers posting their charges online. Now the difference between what one person is charged vs another can vary by a factor of as much as ten, based on their insurance. Normalizing the charges would create a basis for competition. The Surgery Center in Oklahoma City posts all of its prices online, which has forced what other local medical centers charge down.

Encourage physicians' cooperatives, with patients paying a subscription fee for all non-surgical treatment. A coop in Tulsa, OK charges its patients $50/month for a family, and sells them prescriptions at their cost. They accept no insurance for their services, but will connect patients with insurers who sell catastrophic coverage to cover surgeries and critical care. The cooperative is financially sound.

Make the cost of health care 100% tax deductible, including the insurance premiums for those who want insurance. This will help people with serious preexisting conditions.

Expand the use of HSAs, as noted by handyman.

The fact is healthcare is not the reponsibility of the state. There is no way that Washington can devise a system of one type fits all and doesn't go bankrupt. There is no way that pre-existing maladies can be covered and the insurance remains viablle. But Washington is stuck. Once something desirable like that is offered, no matter how destructive, taking it away is political suicide.Unlike games, we cannot say "Let's stop and start all over" if you want to be re-elected. The Democrats would be slavering at the mouth were the Republicans try that. You'd get the biggest reversal in history.We are stuck with a fiscal monstrosity for all time.

I'm all for term limits but who in all that murk will ever vote for that? They all talk purty but you never can quite see all the swamp critters~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhtN4...

Don't have to design anything just give us the SAME HEALTHCARE as the DC politicians. https://www.facebook.com/groups/16033...

Easy! I'd write clear and complete legislation that covers 'Insurance Fraud' and how it applies to Insurers, Providers, Consumers, and Agents. Then I would require that all insurance contracts provide 'a la cart' provisions where the Consumer can accept or reject ANY insurable condition and the Insurer must disclose the actuarial cost on every line item.

The insurance companies would be free to sell to any buyer anywhere. Agents would be able to combine coverage from any insurer or provider. And no policy would ever be locked to an employer, although group discounts might be.

Simply put, in this day of information, transparency would rule. The government's only involvement would be to prosecute criminality.

Reject the assumption that we are our brother's keepers.

That's exactly why I don't have much hope. A lot of Republicans are wimps, or in bed with the Democrats, or take money from George Sorros.

Sorry. Here's a summary of Rand Paul's bill

SUMMARY https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill...

Fix malpractice tort reform! Get government out of the insurance business and let the free market prevail.Let the states decide how to deal with the poor and medicaid by limiting what they are Entitled to as far as free health care. Too bad if you were born a boy and want to be a girl, not my problem sweetie! If my employer provided plan says a procedure is not covered then I have to pay the bill myself, WTF?

Abolish all government "health help" programs, and abolish government licensure requirements for doctors. I think it wise for the government to insist on an appropriate show of competency and understanding for hiring a coroner, medical examiner, or police, infantry, flight, ship's, or other surgeon. But I see no reason to pass judgment on who may or may not recommend medical treatment to others.

For I hold that one can trace a lot of chronic illness to flat-out bad medical advice. People get that advice because the ones giving it have the licenses. But the advice is still bad.

More broadly: a government exists to manage force. It does not exist to provide goods and service that go beyond being the final arbiter of the use of force.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill...

The establishment swamp is fighting any attempts to clean it up

The swamp is too wide and deep for trump to drain it on his own

Repeal Obamacare. Do not replace it. Endure a period of readjustment whilst the marketplace sorts it out. Healthcare wasn't unbelievably expense in the early 60's. Let's go back to that

I agree with AJAshinoff on this.

Adding my opinion: They took a system that isn't motivated to have healthy citizens (quite the opposite), a system that has the least efficient delivery of services (I pay $2500/month while my pediatrician gets $9/kid), slapped a level of government bureaucracy on top of it, held a gun to our heads and called it a tax. OH YEAH...THAT'S GOING TO WORK OUT WELL!

A few years ago, I was out of insurance for a period of time due to a job change. A local physicians group had a preventive care plan. At $75 a month, you could get regular check ups and minor injury and illness care. They created it as a supplement for people getting pushed into higher and higher deductible plans after Obamacare started. I bought into their plan and also purchased a catastrophic gap coverage type plan so in case I was suddenly diagnosed with cancer or something I would have some coverage on that side as well. I paid $150 a month for both plans which left me some ability to stash away money into my rainy day fund. I never ended up going to the doctor in that 6 month period but I got a hefty fine at the end of the year because what I had didn't count as "insurance" according to Obamacare. I think small co-ops are the way to go and I also agree insurance does not equal healthcare. There should be no government involvement. If costs go down, charitable organizations will have more than enough to help the poor and elderly and we all would have more to give them if we choose to.

As this post says, Rand Paul has a plan that makes a good start: https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

"You cannot make health care affordable by playing a shell game with who is going to pay the bill."
This really summarizes it. It seems like politicians are like a kid trying to arrange a set of coins on a table in a creative way that makes them have more buying power.

In his inauguration speech, Trump spoke of glib professional politicians who find ways of getting rich while their voters never see any improvement in their lives.
How he will overcome that corrupt century old or older elite establishment all dug in like infamous Alabama ticks?
I just don't know. Almost all of that crowd started out as conniving blood-sucking lawyers.
The Kim Jong Un way of doing things just doesn't go around here.

Good point. Old serpent tongue Ryan and his accomplices in the Republican party.
I was naive enough at one time to think that you could fight city hall....maybe I watched "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" too often. Now, I really don't have much hope. I think that the Democrats are laughing at us little people, and so are the Republicans.