Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Mr. McCain’s Definition of ‘Best Coverage’, Pt.6 – End ‘free-riding’; add ‘nice choices’.

Previous…

Consider, also, the path taken by the Massachusetts Model health insurance/care system. The creators of this prototype, including Mitt Romney, Ted Kennedy and many other dedicated leaders and experts targeted the ‘free-rider’ problem early on. They reasoned that, if everyone carried health insurance, there would be no good reason for anyone to show up at the ER simply because they had nowhere else to go. So the first thing they set about doing was to get each of the residents of the state covered with their own health insurance coverage. It took two years for the results to pay off, but it worked. Now they are enjoying the rewards of significant savings in ‘safety-net’ expenses. For more on this intriguing success, please refer to the article series: “Mass. Health, A Creator Explains”.

Choice is desirable to those who are fortunate enough to have good health insurance. It is good to note those people will be served well by Mr. McCain. To make things nicer, he is proposing to provide them with a national database so they can rate all the hospitals and doctors and pick from the best of them. Along a similar line, Mr. McCain also proposes replacing the current tax break workers are enjoying on employer-based health insurance with a $2,500 tax credit to those individuals earning more than, about, $29,000 per year or $5,000 to households earning more than $59,000 per year (assuming those people will owe at least the amount of the tax credit in taxes due). This will provide greater choices for those who can afford good plans.

Continued…