Universal, single payer, health care plan09

UNIVERSAL, SINGLE PAYER, HEALTH CARE PLAN09

YES WE CAN

Our nations ECONOMIC DISASTER can be solved if our President has the opportunity to see this plan. The book “Change we can Believe in, Barack Obama’s plan to renew America’s Promise” published before his election, spelled out a lot of problems and the course his administration was going to follow. I support him nearly 100% because he thinks in broad terms and ways that make sense. This Health Care Plan09 will offer him another look at what can be. I don’t agree with him to keep the employer funding Universal Health Care. He needs to look in another direction. Not everybody has an employer. Please forward this to him as quickly as possible. It can save our Auto Industry and much more.

I have developed a plan for Universal Health Care, where everyone pays their fair share. In the process, health care will be sustainable forever, no debt. Also, since we won’t need extra health care money ever again from the government, all our health care debt to ourselves can be eliminated.

Because health care effects so much of what is happening to us today, solving this problem automatically solved most of our other big problems. 80% of our total debt of $57 Trillion dollars can be eliminated, employers won’t need to lay people off, the economy remains strong and the cost of government is greatly reduced, if the same principle is applied to other debt producers in our government, like Social Security. The American people, with their ingenuity can solve the energy problem without the federal government spending our tax dollars, but we need them involved to give us direction and make sure we are all working together.

Don Zwiers
uhcplan09@sbcglobal.net

I am looking for help to get this information to President Obama, highlighting a new approach to Health Care Reform. Although my main interest was Universal Health Care, I feel my plan addresses an even broader subject than just Health Care. Health Care Reform is definitely the key to my thinking, but it expands into all the major areas the American People are concerned about. Also Universal Health Care funded by the government, should be limited to only diseases. Accidents and liability insurance will continue to be handled with insurance companies, purchased privately. Insurance companies can do this and the Federal Government need not be bothered. Insurance companies will do a good job. A National Sales Tax principle to fund Health Care in America makes a lot of sense to me. Everybody needs health care, everybody spends money and therefore everybody would pay a sales tax to fund our Universal Health Care. I’m suggesting 4 rates, depending on where the money is spent. The lowest would be what is needed to survive, the second on what makes life easier and more enjoyable and the third would be for those things everyone would like if they had the money. The 4th rate would be a penalty for those things that would cause the health care costs to increase. This process levels the playing field without the necessity of laws, which require enforcement. The people make their own decisions when they spend their money. Also because this tax is the same for everybody, it is equal for everybody. If we adjust the tax to insure we always have the money we need to pay the bill, but no more than we need, the system becomes sustainable forever. This again makes sense to me. Remember we are ONLY talking about FEDERAL issues where everybody is equal. This is exactly the same principle we use to defend our country, everyone is eligible to serve in our military, regardless of our differences. All federal policy should affect all the people equally, regardless of our differences. (Should we be using our National Guard to fight our National Wars? No, this is a states decision.) Also with today’s technology, we can keep unlimited records in one place and tie them all together, allowing the government to use these actual facts to govern us. This is not happening today because most of the record systems now being kept are not connected. The Senate hearings in Washington, probing our economic mess, brought out the need for accurate information that we can all understand. One of the senators told the person testifying; “Don’t give me all your jargon of your industry, because I can’t understand what you are trying to say, tell me what it will cost in dollars. We and the American People can understand dollars.” Records kept by private entities do not want to share their information with the world because it prevents them from making a profit. The Federal Government does not need to make a profit, they just adjust the tax. The government, in order to stay solvent, must not lose money either. Health care should never cost more tomorrow than today unless it will improve the health of the patient or saves the system money in the long run. We should always be looking for ways to improve or prevent diseases.

Every time another person handles money in a transaction, the costs go up. We save money going “factory direct” every time. When the middlemen are eliminated we save money. Having the government tax everyone the same and sending all that money directly into the Health Care Fund, eliminates the chance of losing any of it. A record is automatically recorded for that transaction. When the U.S. Treasury pays a medical bill, there is also an accurate record of that transaction. All the money is accounted for. This is all electronic data, entered only once into the data base, using today’s technology. The only time the tax rate needs adjustment is when the account is out of balance. The rate can be changed and within a very short time, days or less, and the customer is paying a different tax. The customer may never notice the change but the system continues to function.

Today medical costs are inflated to cover the cost of administering 1000s of separate and different plans presented by the patients. In order for everyone handling money in our present health care system to make a profit, the tax payer is stuck with more costs. The government also has many mandates telling insurance companies, doctors and hospitals what they must do to cut costs. All these create more cost through a lot of waste, both in manpower and time. Therefore if the doctors and hospitals, throughout the country, redo their chart of codes, which I understand is about 6000 prepared by Medicare, eliminating all this waste that was needed to meet all the conditions necessary to get paid, there will be a range of what the true charges would be. Doctors and hospitals will know that the bill they send to the U.S. Treasury will be paid within 30 days.

All this data is entered into the same data base where the computer will be able to determine the average costs throughout the country, by section of country, by size of city, by number of patients per year, etc. The purpose of this exercise is to form a realistic base of information that another group can determine what the norm would be. We know a car made in Detroit will sell for a different price in different places in the country, depending on a lot of factors. Everyone has the opportunity to charge what they can. This is the FREE MARKET. A small town needs doctors just as much as a large city. A doctor or hospital can only provide the service where the need is. A small town, for instance may have healthier people than a large populated area because there is more fresh air, less pollution, fewer people to contract infectious diseases. If doctors are needed, the price a doctor can charge is determined by the doctor. If too many doctors come, there isn’t enough work to support them, some have to go. If we pay all doctors the same wage wherever they go or whether they work or not, the system will not function. It’s like paying people not working in the auto industry. It is unsustainable. People and health issues will determine what medical services are needed. All this data is there right now and we just have to capture it into one record system so we know whether we are improving the system or adding costs we didn’t realize. In either event, the patient must receive better care or the efficiency must be improved.

I also propose a group called “Medical Expert Agency”, comprised of 3 people from each element of the Medical Industry, such as doctors surgeons, dentists optometrists nurses, technicians, hospitals, medical clinics, etc. This group will look at all these costs and determine a fair range of charges they think would be fair across the country. Since all those now getting paid have this master chart prepared by Medicare and this is already in one record, all the new charges will be put into the new chart. The experts in their field will only be looking at the data they are familiar with and their opinion will have uncontested value to get started. Since we are eliminating waste, no charge will be more than what is paid today. I am sure this start of Universal Health Care will produce only lower costs as the system gains experience. This range will be the starting point for the system. As experience is gained, these ranges can be tightened or new codes can be identified, adding to the list. Costs will continue to decrease for several years, until experience is gained from what is happening.

Since everyone is working with the same charts, the system should be ready to go within a couple months. In the end, a procedure may cost $1000 in Tuscola, IL, while the same procedure may cost $2,000 in Chicago. The difference may be the cost of living or such that justifies the charge. Also, two procedures could be done by the same doctor in the same hospital on the same day and have different charges, because these are two different people and the doctor has to treat them differently. Only the doctor knows this. We need to trust the professionals to do their jobs. However, with the super data base, this doctor can be compared with other doctors to see how close they are in charges. Only when something doesn’t look right, would there be time spent to evaluate the differences. Everything has to be kept in perspective. The records are the facts and the facts do not lie. If everyone does everything exactly the same, there will never be mistakes and there will never be any improvements. Doctors need to do what they do. The Medical Experts only serve a limited time and get paid the same. They only meet when needed. This keeps them in the field doing the work they were trained to do. My plan spells out these thoughts in more detail.

Let’s look at how this principle affects each of our major policies.
With the Universal Health Care Plan I discussed; everybody has the same health care and everybody pays according to their ability to spend money. If we just tax to fund our needs, the system is sustainable forever, and we can eliminate our entire health care debt. The things to tax can be adjusted at anytime to meet the needs of the times. The principle remains the same and no laws are required. We can learn from mistakes and make the corrections to improve the fairness. I assume the Office of Budget and Management could monitor these tax rates as needed. They will be tweaking what group each item fall into as needed, keeping fairness to everybody in mind.

If everyone has the same care and already paid for, everyone will feel the same about their care, regardless of their differences. Poor, rich, black, Hispanic, Jew, Christian, young, old will all be treated by a doctor without regard to differences. This is a big step towards equality.

Our economic situation of people losing their jobs because of the financial problems can be helped by this same principle. Because they are still healthy, they are still paying into the system, rather than taking tax money even though they are not sick. If everyone is paying their own health care, employers are relieved of this overhead and keep their employees or hire more people, which of course would help the jobs market. Also, the entire employer base will be helped and not just one or two industries, like the auto or banking. The benefits from spending tax payer’s money are fairer. The potential for people with new ideas will start new businesses, creating more wealth and jobs to pay off our foreign debt. Our youth can be used in the summertime as part time employees, doing misc. house keeping and other nonessential jobs. It’s better to put the youth working on nonessential projects than to have them idle and just getting into trouble. Unions need to be thinking of the new workers as gaining good experience, so they can be good union employees when they grow up. Unions won’t need their dues but they can assume the responsibility to work with the employer to insure they will be safe. These jobs could be minimum wage and 4 hours, just to employ the youth during the summer break and still leave time for play and learn other things that will help them develop into better citizens. Maybe volunteering for some worthy cause. College youths can be employed as understudies to gain experience in the work industry. Being part time employees, they also should be immune from union dues. Young people need the opportunity to get good experience and work ethics. This all makes sense to me. Maybe the youth gang problems will change to gangs competing for volunteer honors and scholarships presented by various service groups in their communities.

Our education system would automatically have more money for education because the health care benefits will be eliminated. This savings can be used to improve the education system.

The Veterans will be taken care of just like everyone else. The medical care they receive will be exactly what everyone else gets in America. The doctors will determine the care they need, and they will get it.

Insurance companies can refocus on insuring insurable things that have a value both the insurer and insured agree. Diseases are not predictable and a human life has no set value that someone other than the person himself can establish. Human life is priceless to each person. Insurance companies will become smaller and a lot of unnecessary administrative costs will be eliminated. Insurance companies won’t be saddled with a commodity they aren’t able to insure, which is evident from the past 60 years. They will still be in the business of accident and liability insurance. Setting a broken leg is pretty much standard. An infection is not and would be considered a disease. They will now be in competition with each other and the government will not be in the business of using tax payer’s money to take care of those without insurance. When you license an automobile you must have insurance and it will cover injuries from an accident. When someone buys a gun, they must buy a license and that license assures they have insurance in case that gun causes an injury. The home owner must purchase insurance that protects the owner from injuries caused by their neglect. Employers have insurance in case someone is injured on the job. If two people get into a fight and cause injury, they are responsible for their own medical bill. Maybe insurance companies will have a way to insure people in those cases. The main focus is the Universal care is only about diseases and the insurance companies are all about accidents.

Doctors and hospitals will be in competition with each other for patients. A good doctor will have more than enough patients, while another may not be as busy. One of the duties of a doctor that nobody talks about and just goes unnoticed is their consultation with the patient. When a doctor has time and the patient’s records are in front of him, he is able to talk and guide the patient toward a healthier life. I think this is what will tell the difference between a good doctor and a so-so doctor. Doctors will go to where the patients are instead of where the money is. People now living in poor areas will improve their health and be in a better position to compete for better jobs. There will be more competition for jobs, housing, businesses and products. I think this is good for everybody. If a doctor knows their efforts will be fairly rewarded, no matter where they work, they will gravitate to where the work is. Doctors and hospitals will invoice their services directly through the national records base where all data required for payment is monitored. If all the necessary forms are completed properly, the invoice is forwarded to the U.S. Treasury for payment. This will all be done electronically. Those sending the invoices in will not have access to what others pay, which insures they only charge what they need to make their profit. The group monitoring the records will be able to have the computer identify unusual situations and then take action. When there are too many doctors, the schools will slow down or doctors will start traveling to other parts of the world where they are needed. Hospitals will work the same way. Some hospitals will specialize in a particular disease and will draw people from a larger area. Smaller medical centers will keep expanding in areas close to where patients are, because people will usually go to the closest facility for the care, especially if there medical records are always with them. These small medical facilities will start cropping up in poorer neighborhoods because that is where the patients are. Today they are being built where the money is. Two heart hospitals will never be built next to each other because it doesn’t make business sense. This sure seems to be the way we want the FREE MARKET to work.

The family doctor has the time to consult with the patient about eating and lifestyle suggestions for a healthy life. They have the medical history of the patient, so they know what has been happening, health wise, in their life. The Family Doctor can become part of the family, if the patient allows it to happen. When a woman becomes pregnant, she goes to the doctor for care. If a woman gets pregnant again and it is apparent that she is irresponsible because she isn’t married and can’t take care of her first child, a decision can be made to sterilize her, preventing more pregnancies. This sterilization should be reversible so if later in life she becomes more responsible and wants a real family, she can still bear a child. This is a social issue, but the medical people must be involved.

Medical people are always making medical decisions, because that is their business. When they see certain foods are contributing to the rise of health costs, they have the tools to affect change. Add that food to the penalty tax until it is changed to a healthier product. The Federal Communications agency should regulate how unhealthy foods or products are advertised. We need to protect our children.

How many times have we heard in our society how a mistake incubated another whole industry, like 3M Post-it’, or the material that has no nutritional value but turned out to be a coating on the pills we consume every day by the millions. If mistakes are punished, potential progress in new ideas and technology are hindered. We need to study the mistakes and learn from them, not punish someone.

Malpractice Insurance is designed to make lawyers a lot of money because no one making the decisions for awards has any real knowledge about medicine. Lawyers sure don’t, the judge doesn’t, opposing expert witnesses can’t agree and the jury, saying guilty or not guilty, are the least qualified to make that decision. That sure doesn’t make sense to me. I think the lawyers and Liability Insurance Companies have a real thing going where they all make a lot of money because of ignorance. If the record system for health care are all in one place and interconnected, the facts pointing to a cause for liability will be very clear. Putting a limit of $250,000 only makes sure they get at least this much. I’m not a lawyer but when I tried to talk to a lawyer about my health care idea and how it would affect their industry, they quoted me a price/hour. Needless to say, I said thanks but no thanks and hung up.

Lobbyists just don’t add anything to the health care system, except cause confusion. It seems they are only talking money and profits. I really can’t say much more. They don’t seem to know medicine. Lobbyists may have there place, but not in medicine.

Politicians can focus on other important issues that require legislation to solve. They will not need to work as hard on health care except make sure the cost is going down and not up. Energy, immigration and our national debt are issues that need a lot of attention now. Maybe they can start helping the people that elect them have a better and safer life. Maybe they will look at lobbyists as a source of collected information and not a source of campaign funds. Maybe people would be more willing to contribute to their funds voluntarily and we can eliminate the thought that $16 million is needed for a senator and $3 million is needed to run for governor. Let’s take the price tag off politics and make service to the people the norm.
Social Security problems, today also needs reform. The purpose of SS was to provide help for people when they get old and are not able to do the work they were doing to make a living. 100 years ago, families lived mostly on the farm or stayed in the same community where they were born. The family was the caretaker for the old or sick. Today families are spread all over the world. SS was developed to replace the family responsibility. The government taxes the workers while they are working and gives the retirees a sustainable income when they are too old to do their job. The problem we have now, as I see it is: 1. not everyone works for an employer. The poor pay more of their available income into the system than the wealthy because it only taxes the first $100,000. 2. SS money goes into a Trust Fund that the government for the past 60 years borrowed the excess money to spend on what they wanted instead of investing it into something that protected the money. The reason for the fund was they needed money to cover the people retiring, that didn’t pay into the system for a lifetime. Once the SS system matured, IT should have been regulated to just fill the needs. 3. The government established their own retirement system, separate from the rest of the Nations employers and funded it thru our regular tax system. WHY? This does not make sense and seems to be a selfish situation. If the government program were to just be part of the SS program, tax 100% of the earnings, starting with the first dollar and make it illegal to work for cash, the system can provide the funds for everyone when they get old. The need for many government workers would decrease, saving taxpayers money. The retirement amount paid should be the same for everyone, regardless what they paid in. The amount should be enough to survive, but not extravagant. If they didn’t make much money during your life, they really don’t need much after they retire. The concept of saving becomes an individual right and the savings is what guarantees the good life in retirement, traveling and vacations. The SS tax, again, is adjusted to pay all the SS bills; the government makes no profit and loses no money. This is sustainable forever. With the records in one place, the system can adjust to the change in times, strictly by adjusting what the program pays out and is equal for everybody. Our entire SS debt can be eliminated because we will never need that money. Pay today’s bills with today’s dollars. Inflation is a non factor. The question here is; how much should SS pay a retiree or a person that can’t work anymore? This has to really be evaluated and a system to keep it current must be worked out.
All workers should pay for their own retirement fund from their earnings. These funds should be owned by the worker and they take it with them where ever they go. The worker can also elect to invest their savings in any way they want, bank, 401-K, stocks, and real estate or even invest in their employer’s stock option plan. It would be their freedom to do what they want. The Government or employer should not be involved, other than offering the service of payroll deduction at no charge. SS only becomes a minimum benefit for everyone, equally. Enough for clean housing, necessary clothes and healthy food (Survival). Travel, entertainment, etc would not be included.

CONCLUSION:
I feel our Nation will see an opportunity to save $100s of Billion every year on Health Care and eliminate $35 to $45 Trillion from our national debt. (This would be about $13 Million/ person.) Everyone will have health care when they need it because they all paid for it ahead of time. They choose their own doctors and it’s there, wherever they go in the United States of America. Just like what President Obama is asking for. Everyone will have the same care. What a wonderful feeling. We will know when we retire, we can enjoy the years left without worrying about how to pay those medical bills. Getting old and retiring will really be something to look forward to.

I took another approach which was to define what we all want and how to get it, without hurting some one else in the process. Yes jobs will be lost and jobs will be created. If we eliminate more jobs than we create, there is a big savings. If we reduce wasted or misdirected effort and streamline procedures, making the system more efficient and effective, the savings will be beneficial to everyone with less cost. I foresee a lot of new industries being created to use all the people now not working. With this plan there are only winners. All this savings can be converted to other needs. Everyone at the forum spoke of their concerns and very few addressed; how do we pay for it? When this funding process became evident to me, I saw where it has a huge benefit to our political way of thinking. More money is eliminated from the problem. Better service and accountability became a much simpler issue. This looks clean and sustainable. Tax money coming in daily to pay bills daily without the problems of inflation just made sense.

Another example, the past 18 month’s revenue from the tax on gasoline stayed constant. At $1.50 a gal the fed government collected 18 cents/gal. This is 12% of the sale. When the gas rose to $4.50/gal the government could have collected almost 52 cents/gal or three times as much. People were looking for a gas tax holiday to save $.18/ gal., when the government was losing for months, three times that amount. If the government changed the 18 cents tax/gal to 12% sales tax 18 months ago, they would have had three times the money to repair roads and bridges. If the speculators had to share more of their profits from a high gas price with the government’ they may have done things differently. The increase in sales tax would never have come up, because it was rising with the price of gas and no one missed the few pennies they were paying.

The government spends months figuring out how to get more money when all they have to do is raise a tax that is tied to what they want to do. This seems simple. If it’s not a good idea the people will let them know. Chicago raised the sales tax in the greater Chicago area to fund Mass Transit. Today they want to use this money for hospitals. It doesn’t add up. Raise the tax that funds the hospitals. That’s how taxes work. The government must use taxes for what its intended and not rob Peter to pay Paul. The people will let the politicians know if they are spending the money right. With this system the Pork spending will become a thing of the past. That SS money will no longer be there to waste. The tax payer will feel more in control and the money will be there when they need it.

The statement was made at the forum that we should keep the parts of our present health care that are working and build from there. From what I have read from the Forum transcripts and what others are saying, there is nothing about the present system that is working. It costs too much and we can’t pay for it. Medicare and Medicaid are both going further into debt with no end insight, 45 million people are without care and those with health care are fast losing what they had and paying more. Our medical people are discouraged and aren’t getting paid. They have to care for more patients, giving them less of their time and their own attitudes are deteriorating fast, and making for a bad situation.

When we talk about the American people, we are talking about everybody. We also talk about everybody when we talk about a federal retirement program. If the Federal Government and the people decide that they should take care of retirees, then we do it together. If not, we fend for ourselves. I’m for taking care of everybody equally and those that save more money just have more to spend when they no longer have that job. I think our national security, safety and welfare are things we need to do together and we all need to pay our fair share. If we think the highways and railroads are necessary for our national security, the government must run it for that reason, otherwise let the FREE MARKET handle it with minimum regulations. If the Railroads, Interstates and US Highways are needed for our National Defense, then the Federal Government must regulate them for that reason alone and the American people must pay for what it takes with a tax of some sort. Also, when the government spends money on National Security, they need to buy only from Americans because we don’t know who our enemies will be tomorrow. Those same manufacturers must never sell our National Defense materials to anyone else for that same reason. Today these people are selling guns, tanks, airplanes, etc, all over the world and making money. This should never happen. If you sell to the government for national security, then you can not sell the same stuff to anyone else. This sure makes sense to me.

This plan needs to be debated in the Health Care Reform Forum. I am sure there will be a lot of disagreement here because most people I try to talk to, refuse to discuss what I wrote. I think it’s a start to get off the fence and make some decisions.

YES WE CAN, but we have to try something different if we are going to make something happen. These are not original ideas. They all came from, what other people have been saying over the years. Our U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence set the stage for a lot of my thinking. We have strayed away from those principles and are now in trouble. Greed has gotten in the way of our original values. I just put all this information together and this plan appeared. It makes a lot of sense to me and I truly believe President Obama will change a lot of his thinking on Universal Health Care. Everybody wants different things and we just have to figure out how we can do it.

Is this a good idea? Can it be better? Do we have to keep looking for another way? I hope this generates some new thinking and we don’t try to keep something that just doesn’t work. I haven’t heard anyone say they like what we have.

Don Zwiers

The main argument I have heard is Universal Health Care is Socialism.
A definition of SOCIALISM: political and economic theory or system of social organization based on collective or state ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.

Our Constitution mentions equity for the people in many ways but never mentions socialism, capitalism, democracy or any other form of government. Thomas Jefferson said, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. “ “A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”



Read the first paragraph of the U. S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. What I am proposing here is what our forefathers are asking of us to do.

I AGREE. OUR GOVERNMENTS SHOULD NEVER OWN ANYTHING. Everything belongs to its people. The government must provide the organization to insure we have the protection we need from those that might harm us, foreign countries, and people with bad intentions among us and even from ourselves. We elect our politicians to run our government for us, according to our constitution and the laws we create, within its framework. This government also promotes for our general welfare and secures the blessing of liberty to ourselves and the generations that follow us.

Today, trying to promote our general welfare, we have created a debt our children will never be able to pay. Our politicians are not listening to the people but they try to please the lobbyists, representing many groups with the intention for these groups to get more than their fair share. This generation has put us in a position that if we do not correct our mistakes, we will no longer be this great nation of “the land of the free.” We will have sold it to the highest bidder so those with the most money can have their way.

YES WE CAN
I feel this is a “WIN-WIN” PLAN