NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN

We must have a national health plan (socialized insurance, not socialized medicine). Private insurance companies go bankrupt after paying the officers high salaries. If these same officers have not already formed a new insurance company, they will. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that judgments for punitive damages cannot be obtained against group health insurance companies. Consequently, group health insurance companies refuse to pay many claims because there is no penalty for not paying.

Women must have prenatal care. It is not only humanitarian, it is, monetarily speaking, the cheapest thing to do in the long-term. We have a government health plan called Medicare. All we have to do is extend it to cover all of our citizens, including the ones who are not yet old enough to vote. The evolution of a democratic society demands a national health plan. Healthcare cannot be considered as an economic commodity.

Private insurance companies are over 20% of the cost of health insurance in the United States. Administrative costs make up as much as 25% of a hospital’s overhead and as much as 40% of a doctor’s office costs. A percentage that would be significantly reduced by a single-payer system and an all-encompassing network of computer-to-computer communication among all of the players in the medical industry. A single computer network that would link the entire healthcare industry, as well as the single-payer, would shrink medical costs on both the administrative and the clinical side. Clinically, a system would have the potential to eliminate the costly duplication of medical tests by making the results of all tests instantly available to any medical provider. Claims would be submitted and payments received without unnecessary paperwork.

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SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES

Social Security taxes should include everyone, with no limit to earnings. Interest, dividends, capital gains, Social Security benefits and other qualified retirement account benefits should be the only exemptions from Social Security taxes. Social Security taxes could then be lowered to a reasonable percentage.

NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN & SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES

by Robert A. Kroboth www.citizengadfly.com

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