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Now I am not talking about universal health coverage, which I think would be a good thing for this country. What I am talking about is a single system that processes medical insurance claims.
Right now, there is a good number of health insurance companies, all with their separate claims processing system. Health service providers have to liaise through different health insurance companies to get claims processed (in difficult cases).
Even if we can't nationalize the money side, couldn't a partial nationalization be done? Health service providers would deal with only one point of contact, the National Health Billing Company (NHBC). The NHBC would collect co-pays and liaise between all the health care providers and the various insurance companies that exist, including medicare and medicaid. Health service providers would then be able to bill for the actual cost of the healthcare, without putting in a mark-up for bad debts.
It doesn't mean that there would be universal healthcare coverage, but it would mean that people can go to a doctor if they don't have healthcare coverage, and at the point of delivery no cash would need to be given. The services would of course need to be paid for, but people wouldn't not have to go to the doctor because they couldn't pay there and then. Of course if it was a major trauma and the bill was quite large, then although the hospital would get paid the patient would most likely have to file some form of bankruptcy once they get out of hospital (or worse; whilst in hospital).
This would then make the introduction of a national health insurance scheme easier, and yet it would allow private health care providers to still compete because the consumer could choose to go with an employer sponsored health plan, a self-paid health plan, or a governmental health plan if they qualify.
Just my silly ideas, and yes before you ask I would prefer a true universal healthcare system. However the only way I think it would happen is if it were to be put in place incrementally.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Mark.
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