HEALTH CARE & HEALTH CARE COVERAGE

            Quite often, it’s not what people say but what they don’t say. To use the figures of many “politicians”, there are 47 million people in this country that don’t have health insurance. Now sometimes they word it as “they don’t have health care”, but that is just plain false. The fact of the matter is that if you walk into any hospital with a life threatening condition, the hospitals are obligated to treat you and stabilize you.

            The accurate point of discussion is “health coverage” as in insurance. Now 47 million sounds like a lot until you consider there are 300 million people in this country. That means that 253 million people in this country do have health insurance. So, 84.35% of the people have coverage and politicians want to revamp the entire health care system to service 15.65% of the population. If that isn’t wagging the dog, I don’t know what is.

            So, as usual, politicians want to fix the blame rather than the problem. I think we can fix the problem and cut that 47 million in half without spending a dime out of the treasury. I believe that a large percentage of the uninsured are people that would buy coverage if they could receive a reasonable rate.

           My aim at the problem is the accessibility of group health care rates for small employers, self employed and individuals. It’s simple economics to understand that it cost as much to write a bill and collect the money for one person as it does for 150 people on one billing. If we come up with a better plan, we can lower cost to providers and make group rates available to the largest “group” in the country.

            Most employers that do their own payroll deposit the FICA, Social Security and withholding through the “EFTPS” or electronic funds transfer payment system that electronically transfers the payroll taxes out of their checking account directly to the IRS and then the appropriate agency. It’s basically a government processing center to collect and disperse funds that is already in place.

            We could have a web site where individuals could pick a plan that fits their needs and receive rates from multiple providers based on the “group”. They could select the plan they want and it would be tied to their social security number. The employer would then add that employee on their end of the EFTPS system. The total deposit for all of the employees health coverages would be displayed in an additional box on the calculations screen and be deducted with the other deposits. The EFTPS system would then deposit the funds into the appropriate provider's account. To help fund this service, $5.00 per month from each person's premium would be retained by the EFTPS system. This would pay for the additional computer systems needed to operate this system.

            This could also greatly reduce the paperwork the IRS sends out each month. I know this sounds crazy, but even after you make your electronic deposits, the IRS still sends out this very thick envelope every quarter to every employer with form 941 enclosed. This is a detailed report to tell the IRS that you have already done your tax deposits and who the individuals those deposits are for. This information could be kept as ongoing records on the EFTPS page that also manages the health coverage info and with a click of the mouse, confirm the quarterly 941 report and totally eliminate the wasted paper reports.

            One more aspect of this plan is the portability. Instead of purchasing Cobra coverage if you are separated from your job, you could go on the site and change the electronic funds transfer to occur from your own bank account. After getting another job, you could update the info and the amount would be deducted with the new employer and you would never have a gap in coverage.