Regular readers of my blog know that the state of health care in this country is one of my major pet peeves.  I think it's a travesty that not all Americans are covered.  While I favor some type of universal health insurance, I know many other Americans don't, so I have come up with another idea.

One of the biggest worries that Americans have is that one illness or accident can wipe them out financially.  But even buying just a catastrophic policy is out of reach for many people.  And sometimes, even when you have health insurance, the things it doesn't cover or the copays, prescriptions and other costs associated with a prolonged illness make it hard to pay.

So my proposal is this: that the government come up with some sort of catastrophic coverage for all Americans, just so we can all sleep more easily knowing that we can't be wiped out because our son broke his arm.  At least that is a good start, right?

Then, we outlaw health insurance as it is known and practiced in this country and let individuals again pay doctors and hospitals directly.  Doctors would be free to charge on a sliding scale.  Families who were not paying hundreds of dollars per month for insurance could now afford to pay the bills.  More comfortably situated families could donate money toward others' health care expenses if they wished.  People would be free to work out payment plans with their health care providers.  Doctors would not have to spend time or money dealing with insurance companies.  Costs would come down because there wouldn't be one charge for those with insurance and one for those without.  Waste would be eliminated.  Most likely, our ridiculously high c-section rate would come down (Do we really believe that God made one third of American women defective???)

I think most people, even the working poor, could manage to pay for some kind of health care in this manner.  My husband and I now pay nearly ten percent of our net income for our health insurance.  Under my new plan, we would be free to save that money if we didn't need to go to the doctor or pay for our medical care out of pocket.  If something serious happened, we would be able to make some kind of monthly payment, and we would know that we could not be wiped out.

My husband says that if I were in charge and tried to implement this plan, the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies would bump me off!  I'm curious what anyone else thinks about it - I haven't thought through all the details at this point.  Please leave a comment with your thoughts!