This meeting held by the Markle Foundation
near San Diego over two days last week may turn out to be
the most
important health information and technology policy meeting of the past
5 years. So I’ll try to choose my words for this post very carefully.
If this increases the length somewhat, I apologize for that in advance.
Why was this meeting significant? Simply put, the Health 2.0 community was involved. With Microsoft’s Peter Neupert, Google’s Missy Krasner, Adam Bosworth from Keas.com, Esther Dyson, Jamie Heywood from PatientsLIkeMe.com, Karen and Richard from Sophia’s Garden, and representatives from MinuteClinic, Wal-Mart, Intuit, Dell, eClinicalWorks, and Intel
present and vocal, this meeting had a different, and to my mind more
open atmosphere than any other policy meeting I’ve attended. It was
not dominated by entrenched large health care enterprises, such as the
academic hospitals, Kaiser, health plans, the large IT vendors, and
the AMA. In fact, those organizations were often on the defensive in
the conversation, because they are perceived by some as not making it
easy for consumers to get to the information they want and need. In
fairness to these and other incumbent groups who were present, I
witnessed a new and a very welcome openness to discuss ways to get the
data into the hands of the consumer.
– Continue this post on the Health 2.0 Blog
Categories: Uncategorized
This is how we fix the health insurance problem, and reduce taxes at the same time:
What we have is a system of double, triple and quadruple dipping happening here in the United States where Medicare and other health care issues are concerned for the haves, and the have-nots.
FIRST: An import tax of 45% levied on all goods and products from foreign countries that involve health care related items. On any line item. From aspirin, to band aids, from pharmaceuticals, to shampoo. From tooth paste to tooth brushes, from combs to eyeglasses. From hearing aids, to prosthetic devices, from soap to cat gut suture material. From orthopedic shoes, to socks that sooth varicose veins, etc., etc., etc. on and on and on………………………………………..
SECOND: All entities subject to state ad valorem taxes by the state their property, equipment, facilities, fixtures, etc. are located in should have a minimum of 25% of the tax paid to the state segregated from the total aggregated amounts collected and the state that collects this tax base value is to forward the proceeds to a Federal agency to be named as executor of these funds that can disburse this source of funding towards federal health related benefit agencies.
The list should be inclusive of all aspects directly related to health care based type endeavors. For instance; Pharmaceutical companies, Hospitals, Dental clinics, retirement homes, Doctors offices, Drug stores/pharmacies, surgical instrument manufacturers, x-ray-mri-ct scan manufacturers, medical grade oxygen producers, band aid manufacturers, hospital bed manufacturers, wheel chair manufacturers, bed pan manufacturers, hospital gown manufacturers, etc., etc., etc. on and on and on………………………………………..
THIRD: 2.5% of the gross income tax collected by each individual state for health care related industries, be they ambulance companies, hospitals, doctor offices, dental offices, medical labs, wheel chair services, nursing services, convalescent services, retirement homes, patient counseling, etc., etc., etc. on and on and on……………………………………….. should be segregated from the total aggregated amounts collected by the state and the state that collects this tax base value is to forward the proceeds to a Federal agency to be named as executor of these funds that can disburse this source of funding towards federal health related benefit agencies.
FOURTH: 5% of all sales tax collected on health care items at a retail outlet be it a grocery store, pharmacy, etc., etc. should be segregated from the total aggregated amounts collected by the state and the state that collects this tax base value is to forward the proceeds to a Federal agency to be named as executor of these funds that can disburse this source of funding towards federal health related benefit agencies.
This means bars of soap, tooth paste, tooth brushes, combs, eyeglasses, shampoo, band aids, mouthwash, aspirin, prescriptions, foot pads, canes, crutches, etc., etc., etc., etc. on and on and on………………………………………..
The above with other implementations has several folds of effects. Number one, funds are collected that will cover, and help recover health care issues, and Social Security.
Income taxes garnished from working men and women, and other industries can be reduced because they are no longer needed.
What we have is the states collecting and utilizing the funds spoken of above in the first place, and then putting up a token ‘match/percentage match’ for their health care programs that are funded by the Federal system. This brings balance to the system.
People are already paying taxes, and those are being misappropriated by the governing authorities, and next the people are going to be asked to pay more taxes to cover short falls in the system, and in the meantime, the money they earned that they are allowed to keep after taxes, is being taxed again on health care related products it purchases at the stores, or when getting aid. That is insane.
AND FIFTH: 5% of profits generated by the insurance industry, period, is to be segregated and forwarded off to help cover health care issues, Social Security issues, and health insurance issues.
So there you go, no new taxes, plus a reduction of taxes, plus the problems fixed. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
Oh, and also a strong implementation of GAO policies to oversee these revenues and how they are being used is strongly recommended.