Archives for the Month of September 2006 on College Conservative Movement
A conservative solution to America's health insurance problems
America has a problem. Not everyone can get health insurance. I have a plan that takes a common sense approach to health coverage in America. Our nation can solve this problem without having to create an inefficient government program. In order to best understand my plan, one must understand my perspective as a college student, why government run universal health care cannot work, and my plan to fix America’s health insurance system.
First of all, one must view this problem through my perspective in order to best understand my thinking. I am 21 years old. I am a college student working towards an undergraduate degree in engineering. I also have a chronic medical condition called Crohn’s disease that requires a bimonthly IV treatment. This treatment can cost in upwards of $7,000 dollars an infusion. This boils down $42,000 a year. Right now insurance covers it. However, I will no longer be eligible for my parents’ medical insurance once I reach the age of 23 years old. I will not graduate until I am 24. There is a program called COBRA that allows me to extend that coverage, but one can only utilize this program for two years. This means that I would have a lapse in coverage if I were to pursue a more advanced degree. I cannot afford a $40,000 education and $42,000 in medical bills, so a graduate degree is completely out of the question for me. My problems would not stop at the end of that lapse in coverage. Assuming I can somehow come up with the money to pay for my treatment throughout a graduate degree program, after six months off of insurance, my Crohn’s disease will be a pre-existing condition. This means that even when I graduate and get insured, I will have to wait a year for my new insurance to even begin to cover any medical expenses related to the disease.
Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are always talking up a universal health care program. That sounds so perfect. Under their plan everyone would have free medical insurance. No one would have to pay for any prescriptions, hospital visits, or surgeries. This sounds great to the casual observer; however, upon further examination, it is far less beneficial than it sounds. First of all, taxes would have to be raised astronomically to fund such a program. This would place even more burden on domestic businesses where it is already difficult to compete in a global economy with current taxes and regulations. It would be even more difficult to compete because more taxes would further increase the cost for product development and production. More importantly, a universal health care system would disrupt the most powerful medical system in the world. Right now, hospitals are competing to provide the most advanced treatments to draw customers. If a socialized health care system is put in place, competition would be replaced with government regulations. This would greatly hinder future advances in medicine. Most importantly, this would result in patients receiving the cheapest treatments and not the best treatments. This is clear in the treatment of Crohn’s disease in Canada where the health care system is socialized. The government will not pay for the regular IV treatments that I receive. They will only pay for much cheaper treatments like prednisone. While prednisone is only twenty dollars, it can destroy one’s bones and liver. It also can lead to extreme anger, mood swings, weight gain, acne, glaucoma, ulcers, abdominal pain, cataracts, insomnia, horrible infections, diabetes, and hypertension. Even with all those side effects, it only works in some cases. In my case, my body did not respond to it at all. With the treatment that I am currently receiving, Remicade, I have been nearly symptom free for almost five years. Some people from Canada are so desperate to get Remicade treatments that they travel to the Cleveland Clinic to receive treatments at their own expense. This is not acceptable. I cannot even imagine having to live without my medication. My life would be absolutely miserable.
I have a plan that could fix the problem with health care without having to socialize it. The concept is quite simple. The biggest problem with America’s health insurance system is the necessity to be part of a group to get affordable coverage. As a college student, once I am off my parents’ coverage, I have nowhere to turn to. Even if I wanted to pay a premium rate, I could not get coverage. My plan would effectively get rid of that problem. The expected outcome is to allow United States citizens to purchase an individual, affordable health insurance plan through a private company. In order to accomplish that, the federal or state congress will first determine minimal standards for two types of coverage: minimal coverage and premium coverage. After that is set, they will set up a linear tax cut system. This system would provide a certain amount of tax relief to health insurance companies who provide individual plans that meet the standards set. The system would be linear because the amount of tax relief would be proportional to the number of people insured. This would encourage competition between the insurance companies to receive the maximum tax break. Competition ensures the best value for the consumers. It is also necessary for the government to require that the company offer the two plans for the same price to all members. This will help to ensure that people with chronic conditions will be able to afford coverage as well. It is necessary that a dialog take place to determine what level of tax cuts are necessary for the insurance companies to participate.
This plan would create and utilize the same capitalistic environment that has made our country such a great and powerful nation. This would make insurance companies compete for tax breaks. Any time companies are competing, the consumer wins. This would allow any citizen of the United States of America to get health coverage at an affordable rate without the creation of an inefficient government program. With the available coverage, the life expectancy and overall health of our nation will likely improve. The tax cuts provided to the insurance companies would also help to improve economic conditions. It would put money back into our economy to help create economic growth. The most important thing about this plan is that all of these results could be achieved without disrupting the operation of our globally superior medical institutions.