proposal: catastrophic health insurance for all, with other american principles

Author: n8nrgmi

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n8nrgmi
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here is my new proposal for universal affordable healthcare in the usa, that i think would be uniquely american as it has a lot of conservative principles in it: 

the government gives catastrophic insurance to citizens above the median salary amount. if the median salary is 50k, then the insurance kicks in above 50k. to keep things simple, everyone is liable for up to 50k. 

all other health insurance is outlawed and it's a cash economy for healthcare..... this will drive down costs tremendously. 

everyone who receives care must pay what they can or pay ten percent of their payr until paid in full, or until they die where his estate pays what it can. all healthcare debt is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, such as how student loans are non-dischargeable. (there can also be hardship exceptions as there are with student loans) this ensures people pay what they are able, individual responsibility. 

non-payment insurance pays all medial bills and takes care of any debt collecting from estates and folks who refuse to work or can't work. this ensures doctors get paid for their service from deadbeats, and puts the onus on the non-payment insurance company to collect. 

as with student loans, most people will work to pay healthcare debts, cause they want money from a job. if you choose not to work, you perhaps get away with murder (as with student loans, we can't force people to work), but you get no income and can be sued if you have assets.

i think this covers all bases. what are your criticisms?
SirAnonymous
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@n8nrgmi
if the median salary is 50k, then the insurance kicks in above 50k. to keep things simple, everyone is liable for up to 50k. 

all other health insurance is outlawed
If I'm reading this correctly, the result of these two clauses combined is that people with incomes below 50k would have no health insurance, but would still get to pay for other people's insurance through taxes. I highly doubt this was intentional on your part, but this plan would tax the poor to pay for the health insurance of the (relatively) rich.

Also, what's the point of outlawing all other health insurance? In order to compete in the market your plan would create, they would have to offer insurance plans comparable to or better than the government insurance plan. That seems like a good thing to me; why ban them?

I have other criticisms, but I don't feel like arguing about them, so I'll leave it at that.
TheDredPriateRoberts
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@n8nrgmi
I like the premise, not so sure about the details, but I think it could work as you described.  Back in the ole days insurance was 80/20 mainly.  You paid 20% of the bill thus an incentive to price negotiate and or shop around.  HMOs were supposed to be the healthcare savior.  A retrospective of pre HMO and now would be interesting.
n8nrgmi
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i think this proposal is a great idea, but the best criticism of it, is that it would majorly and fundamentally shock the economy if we transitioned to it. i dont know how a transition period would work. 
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What is catastrophic health?......Sounds nasty.