Plan to pay for healthcare reform
To the editor:
Health care is quite the topic these days as well it should be. Many solutions have been advanced, and we would like to add ours.
Thomas Sowell had an interesting column in Tuesday paper. And we think that he has raised an important point. You cannot add millions of people to the healthcare insurance plan without increasing the deficit.
He also went on to write that when he had his first child he had no insurance and paid the bill off in installments. This was how we paid for our first child took Of courser we didn’t have the medical advances that we have now so medical expenses were less. When we did get insurance it was for unforeseen circumstances, i.e., broken arms, operations, pregnancy, etc. We did not have co pays for regular doctors visits or medicines. Those we paid for up front. When these are included of course your premiums will increase. Perhaps if we had a way to pay for insurance like we do house and car insurance, that covers you for a fire or an accident with a deductible, the cost of insurance would come down.
Also, we need to address the malpractice insurance that doctors pay. Texas has addressed this problem by having a panel of doctors and medical instructors review the complaint and pass judgment bypassing lawyers who end up with most of the money and giving any compensation to the victims. This has lowered their insurance costs greatly. We think that the federal government should adopt a similar program so that doctors do not have to order excessive tests to protect themselves from law suits.
People pay for a lot of things like electricity, water, telephone,mortgage, cable, food, realizing that all these are a part of life. But when it comes to medical needs, all of a sudden, we complain about having to do so. Like being kept healthy is the responsibility of the government. It is our responsibility to see that our family is taken care of, and regular care should be part of the budget. And, if necessary, insurance purchased to cover the unexpected.
If a person can’t do that, insurance premiums should be pro-rated according to income. Then they could be put in a pool and insurance companies would be assigned a portion of them to be covered by a tax refund to the companies. But everyone that has insurance should pay something toward their own insurance. Hopefully, this will keep government out of the medical pie.
Bill & Doris Heyns
Cape Coral