Questions For Conservatives Regarding Universal Health Care
A simple question I’m curious to hear from conservatives about, but would welcome any other feedback as well:
If you could pay around $200/month for top of the line health care instead of what you pay now through either your own insurance or through your companies plan, would you do it?
Especially if it were to save over a billion dollars in taxes for the state that would be used for property tax relief?
If you’re a business owner, would the tradeoff be worth it for you if you could save thousands of dollars in insurance costs as well?
Wisconsin State Democrats are pushing a plan for universal health care coverage for Wisconsin residents. You can find more details here.
One other point, this would give private citizens the same coverage that “over compensated” public employees like myself get. Under the state plan, I now pay around $175/month for top of the line family coverage.
When I was an employee for a small business in the private sector a few years ago, the costs were around $800/month and rising at a yearly rate of about 15%, so I can only imagine what they’re paying now.
UPDATE: From the office of State Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, here are some of the details of the plan:
- No co-pay for preventative care or chronic disease management.
- $20 co-pay is all you pay for all doctors office visits.
- No co-pay for children.
- Prescriptions covered at $5 for generic and $15 for name brand formulary.
- $300 annual deductible per adult and $600 per family.
- Choose your own doctor. Choose your own health plan.
- Annual out-of-pocket expenses capped at $2000 per individual or $3000 per family.
- No exclusion for pre-existing conditions.
- Doctors, nurses and patients now in charge of healthcare decisions, not out of state bureaucrats from pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
- All the benefits the Governor and legislators enjoy!
Comments are closed.
How will Doctor reimbursements be under this plan? Will they be reimbursed more, less the same? Also, I was talking to person from England on Saturday, and he told me that his father has had to wait 18 weeks for knee replacement surgery and his still waiting? Why would it be any different under this plan?
It’d be the same as they’re reimbursed now when any state employee makes a visit, through whichever insurance provider we choose to use.
Will they be reimbursed more, less the same?
Generally it has been less, which leads to fewer physicians and doctors.
Why would it be any different under this plan?
Initially the wait is not too bad, but as the months go by, the waiting list grows. Welcome to government controlled health care.
How about this plan. WE eliminate the health care benefits for all elected positions.
They are voluntary and public service should not be a ticket to free benefits. Remove the mandates from health insurance plans and let people cover what they want or not at all. Enact real tort reform and get out of the way of the market. This state still does not allow deductions for HSA plans. That state has no business dictating what type of plan or coverage you should or should not carry.
Why not just eliminate the pay for elected officials while you’re at it? Or, following your train of thought, maybe they should actually have to pay to hold elected office! That will ensure that only the most well-off among us represent the interests of those who *aren’t* so well off!
Brilliant.
And clearly, the lack of deductions for HSA plans or malpractice lawsuits – which again benefit primary the well off and healthy among us – is what’s been causing the double digit rises in health care costs. You should read some of the other comments and realize that up to a third of the cost of health care is administrative in nature.
HSA’s aren’t the magic answer despite what many people think, and frankly they also fail to address the problem of the uninsured and underinsured in Wisconsin. Thanks for commenting by the way.
One continual gripe about England and Canada is that you have to wait for service for ELECTIVE surgeries. How long do Wisconsin Citizens without insurance wait for ELECTIVE surguries? A life time. We already have rationed health care. We just choose to ignore the 450,000 or so citizens without insurance. Oh yeah, they can have health savings accounts. I heard a State Senator twice claim that people making $20 k a year can now have insurance because of HSA’s. I know people making $20 k a year and they save money, for rent, food and gas for their car. Nothing is left for an HSA. Have these people ever talked to a poor person? Do they even know a poor person, I doubt it.