How to Fix Healthcare

This came up yesterday in class. This is my idea of how to set up a working system of healthcare.

1. Universal coverage. This should also be mandatory, given that empirically most people do not have the self-discipline or foresight to save up for a rainy day and are when injured usually left without coverage unless covered by a mandatory system.
   
2. Prevention is better than healing. A system must set incentives persons to seek healthy lifestyles and to not let problems exacerbate. Similarly, as a matter of justice, persons should reap the benefits of living healthy and bear the costs of smoking and drinking.
   
3. Avoid socialism. We must avoid the system in which everyone contributes to a big pot and takes out as much as they need. This has been proven to lead for people to contribution the minimal amount possible and to take the largest amount possible. It also creates no incentives for objective B.
   

1. At the same time, certain procedures ought to be covered by society at large. But this must not extend far enough to negate the incentives set in B.
   
2. Minimize administrative costs. Fighting insurance companies in the courts for treatment and complex coverage schemes should be avoided as far as possible.
   

And this is how it’ll work:

1. Every working person will automatically have $1,000 deducted from his paycheck per year. $1,000 is around the amount which the average citizen spends on medication, doctors, etc per year. This money does not go into a central pot but is paid into a personal bank account. Every citizen has a personal healthcare bank account which can only be accessed by doctors and pharmacists and hospitals. This creates universal coverage.

1. Every person can choose for him- or herself what to do with this money, whether to see an ophthalmologist or dermatologist or dentist or none that year. This is preferable for a number of reasons.
   1. First, it eliminates the middle man of the insurance company or the government dictating what is and is not covered by the healthcare system. This practically eliminates administration costs and gives power to the people.
   2. Second, consumers have the most information on what they actually require. This limits waste. Although it can be argued that individuals have insufficient medical knowledge to look after themselves, this is incorrect. Firstly, knowing when and how to see a doctor is not difficult to understand. A car requires maintenance, as does a human. Secondly, it is common economic knowledge that it is in the interest of the seller to supply the consumer with honest and accurate data. [http://www.jubileeresearch.org/finance/The_lemon_dilemma.htm] This is a system which emphasizes personal responsibility.