Is Congress just trying to make obtaining healthcare too complicated? In the healthcare supply chain area, we utilize RFP portals for vendors to submit bids against product specs all the time. A vendor can respond to an RFP with their product that matches either exactly or very closely the product being bid and can submit pricing. Then the bidding hospital can review the response, determine which product most closely meets the desired spec or has the best price and select.
Since an exchange portal already exists why not modify it to allow any potential insurance buyer to “spec the bid” based on certain criteria and allow any qualified participating insurance provider to bid the spec? Let the insurance provider go across state lines and bundle like policies into pools to generate the best savings and possible discounts. Allow a sponsoring Association to participate too.
Let’s say I go onto the portal and I fill in the profile for the person(s) to be covered and select from a menu the healthcare items I want covered; basic preventative, major medical, dental, vision & hearing, Rx & drugs, maternity/women’s health; whatever fits my profile. Select levels for deductible and co-pays that I’m willing to take and request a bid from any insurance provider qualified for my coverage.
Set the limits for Medicaid like they do now, maybe anyone within 150% of the poverty line for the number of persons in the household qualifies for Medicaid; from 150.1% to 200% of the poverty line you qualify for a tax credit and over 200% you’re on your own.
Make the tax credit like the mortgage deduction; it comes off your taxes. You’ll qualify for deductions based on your income; some may get a full credit and some may get a partial based on your other deductions and income. Ex: a tax credit on a $250k home at 5% interest/30 yrs generates a typical deduction of just over $1,950. It may not pay all the expenses for health insurance, but something like this may go a long way to making it easier for someone to buy.
No mandate to buy, but just like the form you get today for your taxes to prove you have insurance, if you can’t present one at tax time you get hit with a DSH Penalty which goes to fund hospitals providing care that is unreimbursed. Essentially paying into the system (like Medicare) to fund any future medical expenses you’ll cause a hospital to incur that they can’t get from your insurance company or you.
I’m sure this has flaws like any system, but to me it seems simple based on models that are already in practice and widely used in other areas of business. Why can’t we make it easy to do business for healthcare insurance and do something like this?
Since an exchange portal already exists why not modify it to allow any potential insurance buyer to “spec the bid” based on certain criteria and allow any qualified participating insurance provider to bid the spec? Let the insurance provider go across state lines and bundle like policies into pools to generate the best savings and possible discounts. Allow a sponsoring Association to participate too.
Let’s say I go onto the portal and I fill in the profile for the person(s) to be covered and select from a menu the healthcare items I want covered; basic preventative, major medical, dental, vision & hearing, Rx & drugs, maternity/women’s health; whatever fits my profile. Select levels for deductible and co-pays that I’m willing to take and request a bid from any insurance provider qualified for my coverage.
Set the limits for Medicaid like they do now, maybe anyone within 150% of the poverty line for the number of persons in the household qualifies for Medicaid; from 150.1% to 200% of the poverty line you qualify for a tax credit and over 200% you’re on your own.
Make the tax credit like the mortgage deduction; it comes off your taxes. You’ll qualify for deductions based on your income; some may get a full credit and some may get a partial based on your other deductions and income. Ex: a tax credit on a $250k home at 5% interest/30 yrs generates a typical deduction of just over $1,950. It may not pay all the expenses for health insurance, but something like this may go a long way to making it easier for someone to buy.
No mandate to buy, but just like the form you get today for your taxes to prove you have insurance, if you can’t present one at tax time you get hit with a DSH Penalty which goes to fund hospitals providing care that is unreimbursed. Essentially paying into the system (like Medicare) to fund any future medical expenses you’ll cause a hospital to incur that they can’t get from your insurance company or you.
I’m sure this has flaws like any system, but to me it seems simple based on models that are already in practice and widely used in other areas of business. Why can’t we make it easy to do business for healthcare insurance and do something like this?
