Senator Max Baucus released his health insurance plan yesterday, mandating those that don't have coverage to get some - whether they can afford it or not. Even the President is planning on forcing Americans to buy some form of health insurance, so even he has flipped on his campaign pledge to not 'mandate' coverage as then Senator Hillary Clinton wanted to do.
It has occurred to me that perhaps another way to get back at least a portion of the money spent on health care for the uninsured is to require that they pay a USER FEE on any amount of medical bills they incur.
Lets say an uninsured person goes into the hospital and ends up racking up a bill worth $100,000. If that person or family has fallen between that crack that people are talking about today, whereas they make too much to qualify for Medicaid and they don’t make enough to buy their own health insurance, then why don’t we require those people to pay a USER FEE of say 20% of the total bill using a monthly payment plan?
While they may not be paying all of the bill, they are having to fork out some money or they will go to jail for not doing so. There are many insurance companies that pay only 80% of the bill requiring even those paying customers to pay the other 20%. Well, perhaps the government should do the same. Perhaps they should charge these UNINSURED people at least 20% of any bill, whether that be a $100 bill or a $200,000 bill – perhaps up to a certain point?
The government could allow for a payment plan to be created based on that families income.
At least the medical profession would be getting a portion of those bills back, and in the long run saving those of us that already carry health insurance — some money. It's been reported that we each pay an additional $1000 per year to cover the uninsured.
And unlike Senator Baucus’s plan to mandate everybody pay for health insurance they may never use and possibly cannot afford. At least this user fee gets part of the money DUE medical providers back, but doesn't require families buy insurance they may never use.
To insure that the money is paid, the government could go as far as garnisheeing that person’s wages unless the person or family can prove they qualify for governmental assistance financially.
Keep in mind that if a person or family is found to be able to pay the part or the whole medical bill financially, they should be forced to do so or their wages should be garnished as well.