Social Health Care in the U.S.

I propose that if the government is too weak or "interest" driven to provide universal health coverage for the citizens of the country it is meant to serve, then it should, at the very least, provide adequate and comprehensive medical coverage for those that cannot afford it. This would include some seniors, all children of low and no-income families as well as the families themselves.

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should make whatever adjustments necessary through its sub-agencies to provide local, dignified services to those people who need the help. The DHHS should also be the branch of the government to regulate and qualify HMOs and PPOs. There should be a minimum standard of services provided by each, and constant oversight should be provided. A government does have responsibilities to its people and should provide strict guidelines for

organizations that deal with public health care in whatever form.

If those who are able to pay for insurance must deal with the market system to receive health care, a suggestion would be to organize the PPOs and HMOs much as the mobile phone industry is organized. The PPOs and HMOs could be closely affiliated with certain hospitals and the hospitals' doctors as well as with other private clinics. Different PPOs and HMOs could reach agreements so that subscribers for one company may utilize services at another location, if necessary, with possible extra co-payments or a slight increase in the following year's premiums if services outside the network were utilized.

This is not the most favorable recommendation, however. I believe the U.S. has a responsibility to provide universal health coverage. If this is accomplished, even if it makes use of private hospitals, doctors and funds, as France does, it has the possibility to seriously reduce the complexity inherent in a "two-toned" system as described above and to drastically reduce paperwork, duplication, and different regulations for different situations.

At the current time, a person desiring health care insurance through a PPO or HMO can expect to pay $200 a month. A family can expect to pay $600 per month. There are 127,523,740 employed people in the United States (OEW). For the sake of argument and simplicity, let us assume that 1 million of those people are able to pay health insurance at the rates mentioned. Again, for the sake of argument, let us assume that half of those workers have families and half are single. The monthly payments for health care by all workers with families would be $30 billion and the monthly payments for single people would be $10 billion. This combined $40 billion monthly does not include Medicare or Social Security payments, which, conceivably (assuming an average of $150 monthly paid by all workers), could add another $19 billion per month. The total monthly input now adds up to $59 billion per month. It is not hard to imagine that the government, with restructuring and consolidation could use this $59 billion per month or $708 billion annually to provide universal and comprehensive health care for all residents of the United States.

Regardless of the health care system method chosen, implementation will take time and the people of the United States will get by, the best they can, as they always have. But the political parties must pull together, without regard to affiliation, leaving behind political motives and greed, in order to correct the haphazard mess that our health care "system" is in. The method chosen must be implemented in steady increments over a span of years to prevent system shock.

--- Thanks to Scintillating and M.O. Reilly for editing ---

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