Stanley Feld M.D., FACP,MACE
President Trump might be going in the right direction. Unfortunately, the media’s hatred of him and the Democratic Party’s ideology and obstructionism might prevent him from potentially pursuing a new and sustainable direction that gives consumers the power to choose their healthcare goals. There is no reason that the government could not incentivize and subsidize the needy and less fortunate with this simple system.
I think everyone is tired of the political noise in the healthcare system. There seems to be no room for an understandable signal. However, I believe that effective technology and social networking can serve to decrease that noise to signal ratio and provide a less complex system.
President Trump is offering association directed healthcare plans, a blueprint to reduce decrease drug costs and health reimbursement arrangements to reduce the cost of healthcare insurance.
All three initiatives, if kept simple, can put control of the healthcare system in the hands of consumers.
Associations can provide healthcare plans to its members. An association health plan (AHP) can provide multiple medical insurance plan options. Smaller employers, freelancers and self-employed association members can buy healthcare insurance through the association.
President Trump’s new regulations have made it easier for the members of associations to be equal to large corporations in negotiating the purchasing for health care insurance. They can also offer multiple healthcare plans and still have a high enough enrollment to obtain deeply discounted premiums and deductibles for small businesses, freelancers and self-employed that the members cannot get on their own.
These consumers will also be able to spend pre-tax dollars on their healthcare plans.
“Access to the savings and benefit flexibility enjoyed by large group health plans is the foundation of the new association health plans. These savings can range from 8 to 18 percent for the same health insurance policy.”
“ Savings can be increased further through tactics such as self-insuring. Avalere Health, a healthcare research and consulting firm, has projected in a recent report that “premiums in the new AHPs are projected to be between $1,900 to $4,100 lower than the yearly premiums in the small group market and $8,700 to $10,800 lower than the yearly premiums in the individual market by 2022, depending on the generosity of AHP coverage offered.”
I think Jeff Bezos, Jamie Diamond and Warren Buffet’s new alliance has the right idea. They will provide deeply discounted healthcare coverage for their combined employees.
The primary advantage of offering health insurance through an association is the ability for an association to aggregate multiple employers so that the resulting health plan:
- “Operates under a large group health plan rules, which can be less costly than Affordable Care Act rules for small group plans.”
- “Leverages its scale of participants in negotiations with health providers in order to obtain more favorable rates for medical services.”
The country has not been given enough information nor data to understand Obamacare’s inefficiency. The media has not been helpful in letting consumers understand Obamacare’s inefficiency and deficiencies.
President Trump is interested in having associations form and compare their success to the failed structure of Obamacare. Obamacare would seize to exist.
If associations are done right they can become a simple system that consumers can easily understand and use. This was Steve Jobs vision when Apple developed the iPod, iPhone, and iPads.
The insurance product that could achieve this vision for healthcare is my Ideal Medical Savings Accounts.
Americans need the new option to create a sustainable healthcare system.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.
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