A Basic Checklist For A Step-by-Step Approach to Health Reform

From Forbes, "Don't Believe The Pundits, Conservatives Are Bursting With Ideas To Replace Obamacare" by Grace-Marie Turner:

Competition could work if consumers were truly engaged as partners in getting better value for their health care dollars.Government needs to get out of the way, not build more barriers.

All of these ideas need to be explained in more detail, but here’s our basic checklist for a Step-by-Step Approach to Health Reform:

PRIVATE INSURANCE:

1. Provide those at the lower-end of the income scale a tax credit to purchase coverage, either on their own or through an employer
2. Allow those with higher incomes to deduct the cost of their health coverage, whether they receive it through their employers or purchase it on their own
3. Allow greater flexibility in health benefits: Consumers, not regulators, should decide what their health plans cover and not be forced into government-set benefit standards
4. Provide portability of health insurance and greater competition by allowing cross-state purchase of health insurance which will, in turn, incentivize states to lighten regulation
5. Allow states to develop or authorize pooling mechanisms where consumers can spend their credits or deductibles to find and enroll in the insurance that best meets their needs
6. Allow secure renewal of health insurance that is guaranteed so people who have health insurance can keep it and not see premiums soar if they get sick
7. Provide financial assistance to the states to create more functional high-risk pools or state risk-transfer pools that allow people with pre-existing conditions to purchase health insurance
8. Reform the medical malpractice litigation process at the state level.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS:

9. Provide more options for Medicaid recipients, Medicare beneficiaries, and others on public programs to escape the restrictions that inevitably come from price controls
10. Protect and improve the Medicare Advantage program that gives seniors the option of private plans in Medicare
11. Allow people to escape Medicaid by allowing them to assign the value of their Medicaid benefit to private coverage of their choice
12. Provide more flexibility to the states in running their Medicaid programs so they can adjust payment rates to encourage physician participation and cut red tape that drains taxpayer dollars from delivery of care.