In my last post, I wrote that health care reform proposals need to focus on the patient side of the health care delivery system by designing systems that eliminate the cumbersome, even tortuous routes that patients must travel to enter that increasingly privileged space – a person with health insurance.
An illustrative example is the Qualified Medical Child Support Order (QMCSO). QMCSOs apply to those children who live with one parent but the court orders the other parent to provide the health insurance. The parent who has custody of the child is called, logically, the custodial parent. The other parent is called, can you guess, the non-custodial parent. Continue reading ‘QMCSO – Say what?’
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Every health care reform proposal attempts to offer some relief for small businesses. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), small businesses create 2/3 of American jobs, yet half of the uninsured are in small businesses.
Look at President-elect Obama’s health care proposal on his campaign’s web site. The first two items:
- Require health insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of the health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums.
- Create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.
What’s remarkable about these proposals is that we are still discussing them. Continue reading ‘Health Insurance for Small Business’
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I support a simpler health care system. That is my number one priority. Thus I am unimpressed with the health care reform platform of our newly elected president. I do share the hope and optimism of many that meaningful change can and will happen.
But getting a simpler health care system means that some of the stakeholders need to be cut lose from the system. That is a politically daunting task. It is why most health care reform proposals try to add more patches to what is already a shabby patchwork quilt of private and public programs.
One effort does try to simplify a small part of our current system. Continue reading ‘For College Students – It's not simple’
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Instead of focusing on Joe the Plumber and his tax phobia’s, perhaps the presidential candidates should talk to Jesse the Artist and ask him or her about health insurance. On Sunday, October 19th, I visited the Bethesda Row Arts Festival in Bethesda, Maryland. I did just that. In a very unscientific survey, I talked to a number of the artists about their health insurance.
Why should anyone else be interested in artists? Because they are small business people. They are also very creative. It is this creative entrepreneurship of small businesses that candidates like to support because it is the economic engine that drives the American economy. Continue reading ‘Ask Jesse the Artist’
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