An Affordable Health Care System.

[ivanm]

A few preliminaries in lieu of a comprehensive answer [which i don't have, by the way]:

1] It simply cannot be ONE all-encompassing system, whatever that system is: it must be a mix of personal private insurance, employer-provided insurance, cash-for-service, and government underwritten medical service for those who do not fall beneath any previous category.

2] Whatever the system turns out to be, every effort must be made to keep government involvement to the minimum level possible.


3] In order to increase the dwindling number of primary care physicians as opposed to specialists, make three to six years as a family doctor a mandatory prerequisite to entry into one of the specialties.

Addressing item 1:  I agree.  The biggest issue, which is being soft pedaled, is the coverage of those who don't have insurance for some reason.  Some have lost their jobs and their group insurance, and many probably are minor degree of participation in its plan is that the group must be large in order to have winners that subsidize losers.

[ivanm]

That might be a tacky and uncaring way to put it, but it is a business proposition so I liken it to the mix of investments in a portfolio.  Some do well and some don't, and if the portfolio is to be successful or profitable then the winners must outweigh the laggards and losers. 

We have flood insurance called FEMA, and this operation is very insistent that people who own homes in a flood plain will have FEMA insurance.  Once again, it is the old bit of having a large pool of preimium payers to draw from with the idea that floods will impact only a portion of them at a point in time.  This seems to be a trait of insurance that must be allowed for if the insurance is to survive.

My objection is having to join a group policy if I don't want to or don't need to.  I fixed the FEMA problem and moved out of a flood plane.  One can also avoid the insurance by not having a mortgage on his property.