DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy

A Solution for Funding Health Care for Everyone. Budget Neutral + No Entitlements + Single Payer Not Government Run, but Government Paid (1% Ear Marked Tax—Single Payer). Health Decisions made by Doctors and Patients. Everyone Covered. No Denials. Everyone Pays. This plan does not require health insurance by businesses, or individuals. Example: Cost of a gallon of milk = 3.00. Your payment towards health care = 3 cents. On the other hand if health insurance is purchased from an insurance company, then the cost would be 300.00 per month or more. That’s = 3600.00 per year + deductibles + co-pays + bureaucracy + denials, etc. The Solution: 1. Institute a 1% national sales tax ear marked for health care only. a. No more health insurance premiums for anyone, businesses or individuals. b. No more duplication of services, overly compensated insurance co. executives and bonuses. c. No more confusing complicated plans/supplements/options/exchanges/triggers/parts a, b, c, d, etc. d. No more packed emergency rooms. 2. Doctors/Hospitals simply submit their bills and get paid. a. Bills are processed by IRS or former insurance companies. b. Doctors are not told what to charge. c. Costs are controlled by the elimination of excessive profits and duplication. d. Costs Guidelines are published by the use of "Should Cost Studies" and updated yearly. e. Cost guidelines are not enforceable by law. f. Costs are controlled by peer pressure of other doctors, media, should cost studies, and jawboning. 3. Everyone pays based upon their rate of consumption, from a quart of beer at a      convenience store, to the purchase of a BMW or Yacht. a. No class warfare pitting one group against another. b. Everyone has a stake in their health and pays their share. 4. No one would have to be without health care. a. Everyone would have "The Same Plan". b. No freeloaders. c. More than budget neutral, it would be a budget multiplier. Tourist and illegals would be contributing by their purchases. 1% paid incrementally through purchases verses paying thousands per year to insurance companies, padding the pockets of executives with excessive profits, and their employed doctors/lawyers, whose salaries’ and time could be going towards health care, instead of the attendant bureaucracy of doling out health care and denial letters.

Shifting funding to the rich or business owners is not the answer. They are the exact group that provides jobs to us all. Let's let everyone pay their own bit and give them a feeling of having a stake in their health care rather than making them dependent. 3 cents on a quart of milk will add up if everyone pays.

The only responsibility the government should have is doing the "Should Cost Studies," publishing the subsequent guidelines, collecting the tax money, and paying the bills. We don't need any laws that pit one group against another, that tell doctors what to charge, or force individual citizens to buy insurance with the associated waste of duplication and excessive profits. The best policy is to keep it simple. That will go a long way towards preventing gaming of the system. Complex laws, rules, plans, exchanges, triggers, and parts are just mechanisms to frustrate, control the people, build bureaucracy, and provide avenues for fraud.

Sincerely,

Johnny Wilson jpw46@yahoo.com Warner Robins, GA. 31088