Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

The Real Problem of Covering the ‘Uninsured’, Pt.13 – Self-tracking performance & efficiency

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Analyzing the elements we have been given, we can meaningfully assess certain behavioral patterns based on the model, greatly simplifying projected health insurance/care outcomes:

1) Mr. O. plans to keep the present employer-based health insurance tax exclusion intact. Of course this needs little explaining, since we already know it so well. What we may not realize is the profound effect of what could happen if we should lose it. Remember, 60% of our nation’s health insurance is based on the stability of this 60-year old system. Now that’s predictable.

2) Similar but very different from Mr. McC’s tax credit, Mr. O also proposes a tax credit. The stark difference here, is the behavior of the credit. Instead of a ‘one size fits all’ approach like Mr. McC’s, Mr. O’s approach self-tracks both need and efficiency. The break is not given to those who don’t need it, but is increased (regulated) in order to provide a minimum health insurance/care standard for those in need, much like the minimum wage, which didn’t always exist but was born of necessity. All other the industrialized countries in the world already know that national minimum health care standards are a necessity. It’s way past time that our nation catches up to this understanding. To make minimum health insurance affordable, each household is asked to only cover up to 7.5% of their yearly income for annual health insurance premiums. Tax credits will be awarded to cover the rest. So a poverty-level individual ($15,000 per year) would only be responsible for not more than $1,125 per year (about $43.27 every two weeks).

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