(01-30-2019, 06:00 PM)Last42min Wrote: Your argument has faulty premises. The first is that assuming that because health care hasn't worked like that in the past, that it can't work like that. If car insurance worked like health insurance, you'd have to go through your insurance to change the air in your tire, get an oil change, or even get gas. Can you imagine the price of basic car maintenance if it were treated like health care? Driving a car would become completely unaffordable. My solution started with that idea in mind, then reworked health care to fit the model of car insurance. You haven't addressed where I have failed. Is there some kind of history that has already been tried where health insurance was limited to catastrophic injury? I'd be interested in the data.

The second, and much harder to prove, is that health care is one of the few areas that would work best under state control. That's just an assumption you are making. I don't need to accept either of those premises, at least not the way you just laid them out. More data please. Less rhetoric.

Tangentially speaking, I would prefer it if you criticized my suggestion with the goal of making it work OR give specific, verifiable instances why my plan is flawed (I'm sure there are weaknesses). I think one of the reasons that people can't accept new ideas is because it's easy to find a fault with something that isn't in place. Finding a fault does not discredit the entirety of the idea. The original question was how to blend national healthcare with a free market system. I have given it a lot of thought and this seems best to me. Again, if you can think of another way, I am all ears.

Regarding the part in bold, that has been my argument for many years.  Health insurance should be a guard in case of a catastrophic failure (illness or injury).  Health care or "insurance" should not pay for routine office visits.  People should pay for routine physicals or PAP smears out of pocket as well as minor injuries such as a cut that requires a few stitches.  People have gotten used to "my insurance pays for office visits" or "I only have to pay a $10 co-pay for a physical".  That's what drives prices up.

Expand the incentives and availability to open health savings accounts and expand the availability of catastrophic health insurance.

Bottom line... allow people to take care of themselves rather than rely on the government or some "insurance" company.

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