Heidie’s Health Care Plan
Post date: Oct 7, 2009 11:05:26 PM
For the life of me I can’t figure out why everything has to be so complicated and I’m not the only one that thinks this way.
Let’s wipe off the table and start all over with health care. Ok, let’s imagine a nice clean table, not stacks of paper, no lobbyists drooling and breathing fire, no politicians wringing their hands over the money they may jeopardize for themselves by opening their minds to a new day. Truly a clean slate must be in front of us.
This is how it works: Everyone with a social security number, not some, everyone, no excuses, too poor, too sick, too anything, everyone that has a social security number pays every month, a minimum of ten dollars, period. Now that’s not to say those that could and should pay more every month need only pay the ten dollars, pay what you can afford on any given month. Let’s face it some months are better than others. But this ten dollar figure, I don’t care who you are, you can find it, borrow it, someone will give it to you, you can collect enough cans every month to get it but you must put ten dollars into the kitty every month.
The payment coupons are available everywhere, DMV, Social Security office, Post Office. You can create your own payment coupon because all it says is where to send payment, the social security number it is credited to, the month and the year, that’s it, put a stamp on it, mail it! In many cases e-accounts will make this payment process incredibly simple.
The ‘pay-in’ starts three months before anyone actually uses the plan. An enormous amount of money is now in the pool. Doctors, caregivers, and the like simply bill the money pool that continues to grow monthly.
I highly doubt people will go running to doctors because they can. Does anyone get in a car wreck because they are insured? Let’s face it we don’t want to be sick but when we do get sick it’s very frightening not to be able to get care. That’s the crux of this situation; it’s just that simple.
The department that receives the money pays your medical bills out of this enormous pile of money that rolls in each and every month, no more worries about the money.
The cost of the medical care itself. Well, don’t you think that if we had clinics in each and every neighborhood that would be a place where at least fifty people would be employed? A doctor, accountants, nurses, a janitor, the list of people to keep a clinic running is long and the work is respectable. This will create competition in the health care field. Think of any business or service, they thrive on competition.
As the clinics are being built and re-vamping vacant buildings into clinics creates vast employment that is again, respectable. Of course you can go anywhere you like, see the doctor you want, you have paid into to pool, you are covered.
Not enough health care to go around? Well let’s be pragmatic for once. If there must be a choice made, if only for that moment, the person that is of normal weight and doesn’t smoke is seen first, ten pounds over weight is next, twenty pounds over normal weight is next and so on. This would be for smokers as well, if you smoke and are of normal weight you go second if you smoke and are ten pounds over weight you go third and so on.
Do not despair, this approach gives the obese and the smokers an incentive to loose weight and quit smoking. Yes, they’ve paid their ten dollars a month and they will be seen but we must be fair here, the normal weight person that doesn’t smoke has ultimately tried the hardest to be healthy that’s just a fact. Do not seize on this aspect because in America we ultimately care for everyone.
This loose weight and stop smoking problem is good because in the neighborhood clinics there will be classes, workshops, nutritional advice, cooking classes (looks like employment to me) teachers, nutritionists, smoking cessation assistants, etc.
Neighbor helping neighbor, getting paid for it and all the while everyone with a social security number is paying their ten-dollar monthly minimum (or whatever they can afford above the minimum). When did the honor system and doing the right thing become a thing of the past? We all know the answer to that question in two words Corporate America, nuff said.
Taking care of each other and everything involved in the process is a major part of the new economy. Let’s open our minds and make it happen.
Heidie McCall –artist – published author – television producer
hm@factoryweststudio.com