"Socialized Medicine" is primarily an ideology championed by the Democrats. However, contrary to popular belief, a nationalized health care system has never actually been on the agenda for President Elect Obama. His agenda has always been to assist those who are rendered uninsurable and or are in need of assistance in obtaining health care coverage due to low income. Part of his plan is to expand the role of SCHIP and State Insurance Risk Pools so that those who are rendered "uninsurable" on the individual major medical market have access to guaranteed insurability.
Many states already have established Risk Pools. However states such as Arizona and Florida do not. These states desperately need such Risk Pools. Unfortunately, until now they have not been able to receive enough Federal funding to expand this much needed role. President Elect Obama wishes to provide more Federal funding to these existing risk pools to drive the premiums down, thereby making this option more affordable for those rendered uninsurable.
One of the reasons a "nationalized" health care system has never been on Obama's agenda is most likely due to the terrible failure of such programs in countries such as France & Canada. However, proponents of "socialized medicine" often use Canada as a template in which the U.S. Health Care System should follow. Those living in Canada know full well that their government run health care program is most certainly not working. As a matter of fact, many Canadian citizens choose to hire high priced brokers to find them quality health care right here in the United States because of the terrible bureaucracy that controls all forms of health care in Canada. For facts about the current Canadian Health Care System and how it correlates to the current state of health care in the United States watch the short but informative documentary videos embedded in the first article of my health care blog located at the end of this article.
The truth of the matter is we already have an enormous amount of entitlement programs available to those who find themselves unable to pay for their health care. Often times these entitlement programs are offered to those who are here legally and illegally as was the case in the State of Illinois. Most recently, the State of Hawaii tried to emulate the Medicaid Expansion programs that were enacted in Illinois. It took less than 7 months to render their program bankrupt.
All things considered, the best way to offset the high cost of health care in the U.S. is to adopt the initiatives set forth over a decade ago by Senator Bill Archer (R) of Texas. The HSA (Health Savings Account) commonly referred to as a "Medical IRA" coupled with an HDHP (High Deductible Health Plan) is a unique option that maintains high quality health insurance coverage for the policy holder whilst also building a tax deductible, tax deferred interest bearing account for the insured to use for future medical expenses. Many medical expenses that would not normally be covered by a traditional health insurance plan would be a 100% tax deduction when the insured owns a tax qualified HDHP. The list of IRS approved expenses can be found on the HSA section of the IRS web site.
Even if one can not qualify for the aforementioned HDHP option due to underwriting restrictions. There are still several other options now available to those who have been rendered "uninsurable" in the individual health insurance market. These options are as follows:
1.) The aforementioned State Insurance Risk Pool Coverage provided under HIPAA which provides seamless continuation of coverage once an insured has either lost employer sponsored group or has been offered Cobra continuation coverage and then exhausted it. To find out the states that have risk pools visit: http://www.naschip.org/states_pools.htm
2.) Small Group or Employer Sponsored Health Insurance which contains the all important "Guaranteed Insurability" clause. A Small Group policy can be purchased by as little as two people (often husband and wife working under the same corporate tax ID number).
3.) Gauranteed Issue HIPAA certified "Defined Benefit" Health Insurance policies issued on an individual basis to anyone regardless of medical history. Whilst these plans offer limited benefits, they will cover pre-existing conditions such as Cancer and Diabetes from day one providing the applicant can produce a Certificate of Creditable Coverage from their former carrier showing at least 18 months of continuous coverage with no lapse of more than 63 days.
In the end consumer education and retention of existing Federal entitlement programs (via a legitimate needs assessment test) will go a long way towards not only maintaining our current health care system, but also towards keeping the bulk of our nations risk where it belongs namely, with the private health insurance sector. In light of the recent $7 Trillion "Bail Out" and many other failing corporations coming to the table with their hats in their hands (and their private jets on the tarmac) the last thing our government should do is start cutting more blind "bail out" checks in an effort to "reform" the U.S. health care system.
C. Steven Tucker, is the President of Small Business Insurance Services, Inc. and has been a Licensed Mult-State Insurance Broker serving the small business and self-employed market for over a decade. Mr. Tucker believes an informed insurance consumer makes the best health insurance purchasing decisions. Mr. Tucker has written several articles that focus on small business health insurance, which can be read on a number of web sites around the web. He also serves as a health insurance subject matter expert for the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Business Magazine, The Nashville Business Journal, Real Estate Executive Magazine, The Tennessean and other business journals around the country.
You can learn more about the state of health care and how to avoid insurance fraud by visiting his health blog here: http://www.sbisvcs.com/blog.htm
If you have general questions regarding health insurance, or you are in the market to purchase a health insurance plan, you can also call Mr. Tucker toll-free at 1-866-SBIS123 (724-7123)
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