Fuzzycaid...

I'm not sure what a government run health care plan would consist of...but I do want to see the uninsured...insured. Here in Illinois...there's a requirement for all college students to have health insurance. If they don't...it's provided by a University Clinic for a sliding-scale fee.


That's what I sort of imagine is going to happen eventually.

But I'd rather do what I'd consider to be a few HIGH-impact things before trying to figure out how to provide health insurance to areas of the country that have no "public health" infrastructure.

Like...

-Vouchers for smoking cessation and smoking cessation related products for low-income families. Poor and a smoker? Being a smoker just makes you poorer...and sets you up for other health issues that you can't afford any more than you can afford a carton of cigarettes. Provide some sort of voucher for _proven_ smoking cessation programs and/or things like the patch or zyban.

-Substance Abuse. Treatment centers and rehab...considering the waiting lists for getting into these programs...and the fact that many, many people need to be in two or three times before they can sucessfully complete them...you'd think it would be a prime area of "health care" that we'd want to support before trying to compete directly with the folks at Cigna. With the added bonus of reduced drug use and alcoholism reducing crime. (Especially if crimes related to addiction are decriminalized and the person "sentenced" to rehab instead of jail.) Sure...somebody might make the choice to put something in their body...but very few people do it with the vision that someday they'll be giving out blowjobs so they can earn money to support their crack habit. We need to help these people more than what we're doing now.

-Universal Children's Healthcare. Why worry about adults when we can catch them young before they have a chance to become diabetic? Kids already HAVE TO go to school...tying children's health to the school nurse that SHOULD be in every school in the nation seems like a no brainer. Schools already monitor hearing, sight...and vaccinations...why not provide money to help the schools provide basic healthcare to students? Maybe because education funding isn't a priority in the US? *sigh* Programs that work with schools to provide children's nutrition are some of the best ideas I've ever seen. (Like the backpack programs that send low-income kids home with nutritious food to eat.) Of course...we might have to stop funding schools with property taxes and/or the Lotto to do this.

-Wellness Voucher. I got a $40 voucher from the government because they were changing TV broadcasting. Every seller of the set-top converter boxes was required to accept it. Why not a healthy voucher? Rebate or subsidize the annual wellness checkup for non-insured Americans. Give me a coupon or a voucher or a card so I can see the doctor once a year and get whatever routine tests are suggested for my "age group" and update my vaccinations...get a pap smear...smoosh boobs...tickle prostates...or whatever. Make all of the costs of this annual checkup covered by my coupon. I hear the number of Americans who haven't seen a doctor in 2+ years...and it makes me wanna scream. Maybe fewer people will die of cancer...stroke...heart disease...if they actually GO to the doctor and get it diagnosed early before they start having symptoms and feel sick.

Plus...a LOT of common medical concerns can be treated on one visit a year. Illnesses like high-cholesterol requiring nutritional counseling. Prescriptions for birth control. Allergies. Athsma. Nutritional deficiencies. High blood pressure. Treating certain viruses. Migraines. Cold sores. Etc. Not that it's ideal...but it's better than treating NOTHING on NO visits a year.

You could even put in a reduced cost for treatment of any conditions and/or illnesses diagnosed during this checkup. Or at least some guidance as to where to go for low-cost treatment.

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Where would the funding come from? Employers who don't offer health insurance. Walmart could pay some sort of 'employee tax' to the government that would help pay for these rudimentary services...or bite the bullet and just provide insurance to employees in order to avoid it. Since payroll taxes are already reported to the government...it's not going to bloat anything to collect another employee based tax from an employer. The self-employed would be required to pay it for themselves.

I'm not an economist...but I do know that plenty of people who work at a company that doesn't offer health insurance ARE insured by a spouse and/or family member who works somewhere that does. So the intake of this tax will probably cover more of the output of the program than one would think. And most business that "balk" will end up showcasing the fact that they don't provide healthcare...which seems like a bad PR move. Better to just pay the $50 - $75 per employee per quarter...or whatever.

That's my $0.02.