The plan, in summary, is called "CPR" (nice!):
- Coverage - Every family is required to have some type of health insurance. Those that cannot afford insurance will have insurance provided for them by the government.
This is the BIG black hole in my opinion - Who decides what is affordable? For example, if the threshold is $30k/yr in household income, why would someone making $29,999/yr and receiving free health insurance want to earn $2 more but then have to pay for their own insurance? Sen. Gregg did not provide details on this, but I'd hate for the funding of said public health insurance to come from taxes on private insurers as has been suggested by others. A tax on private insurance companies is nothing more than another tax on you and I, as we will most assuredly foot that bill. - Prevention - Much like an HMO, the focus will be on establishing and maintaining a healthy population, as opposed to crisis management.
- Reform - Sen. Gregg's analogy: We wouldn't expect to pay for two meals at a restaurant if the first one were spilled in our lap. So why is it acceptable to pay for ineffective medical care? Sen. Gregg's point here is that more and better attention and communication needs to occur amongst providers in order to ensure the most appropriate and successful treatment the first time, thereby reducing wasteful second and third attempts at treatment. Medical providers have little incentive to cure patients as they are simply paid for the procedures and tests they perform.
Keep working on this idea, Sen. Gregg. There are some bugs to work out, but your proposal makes more sense than any I've seen thus far.
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