My Simple Three-Step Solution For Healthcare in the United States

Instead of the bloated, complex healthcare plan they're debating in Congress, I have a cheap, simple, and elegant three-part solution:

1. A universal catastrophic healthcare insurance plan - basically, we extend Medicare to everyone under 65 with a large deductible - i.e. $15k to $20k.

It will be no-frills: no payments to providers, etc. On April 15, anyone who went over the deductible in the previous year would file a claim, submit all bills as proof (whether paid by them or insurance), and receive a check.

Importantly, the deductible will automatically be adjusted each year by the rate of medical inflation. It can only be overridden by 60 votes in the Senate. That way the medical establishment can't raise prices and make everyone qualify for reimbursement.

People can cover the amount before deductible through health savings accounts and private insurance.

The idea is that the deductible should be high enough that it won't cost the government much, but it will reduce insurance rates, and make insurance more widely available - because insurance companies know their payments are capped.


2. An insurance company that is allowed to sell insurance in any one state can automatically sell insurance in any other state. This, along with the high deductible government policy, will make insurance affordable and available to more people, including those with existing conditions - without any government micro managing and mandates.


3. Require drug companies to set 4 price levels on each drug. The Social Security Administration knows how much money you made in the previous year so, accordingly, they will mail you a card with your price level on it. Alternatively, pharmacies can have access to an online database which reveals every family's price level (but not actual income). Anyone not showing a card and/or refusing to let the pharmacy look up their level will be charged the most expensive level.

The government will not have authority to micro manage (i.e. set prices or mandate the difference between levels). Market forces will do that. If one company, for example, set all 4 levels the same, another drug company could lower their level 1 price and raise their level 4 price to compensate, and steal away the lower income customers.

This is an elegant way to subsidize the poor's access to drugs, directly with 100% efficiency - without the money flowing into Washington first and getting skimmed off by lobbyists.

I know that Libertarians won't like steps 1 and 3 - but the fact is that modern society wants subsidized care. That's why I'm a "Simplicist" instead of Libertarian. If the majority want the government to do more than Libertarians want, that is reality - but, then we need to make "small and simple" the core values.

If we make simplicity priority 1, and use a little creativity, I believe we can meet society's needs with a government much smaller and less intrusive than it is today.