Healthcare insurance solution

[johntgold]

I had a brainstorm and had this idea what do you think?

Currently Health insurance companies make their most money when you die suddenly, after paying all your premiums and not going to get preventative care. This motivates them to put up barriers to you bothering to go to the doctor, high co-pays, calling for permission, high deductibles …

However that motivation could be eliminated if Health Insurance companies were also responsible for your Life Insurance. (like $250,000 or $500,000?)

Suddenly Health Insurance companies would want you to live longer, go to the doctor and get preventative care, and would not put barriers such as high co-pays, calling for permission first, and high deductibles in your way; they instead would be calling you to schedule your next appointment!

The extra cost of this Life Insurance to the individual could then be almost eliminated by having a different organization then pay your health insurance a monthly amount for the privilege of being a beneficiary of your Life Insurance. (This organization would not be allowed to be the Health insurance Company, its subsidiary or parent nor a re-insurer of life benefits with the health insurance company.)

[Ula Oh]

I suppose that is a good idea in theory, America's health system is so messed up I don't even know where to begin fixing it. If it were a car I would call a wrecking yard to tow it away.

Good brainstorming, though. Keep it up.
Ula

[GAP]

I like your idea in general I can only see one issue. The type of life insurance you are talking about is Term Life Insurance.

Term Life Insurance is where you pay a usually very small amount of money for a potentialy huge payoff in the case that you die. The reason the payout can be so huge is because they are going to avoid at all costs insuring someone that isn't already in good health. The older you get, and hence more likely to die unpredictably, the more expensive term insurance gets. To such a point that it's just not worth the money anymore or is impossible for you to pay. And that's really what they are hoping will happen. That you will get life insurance with them in your mid twenties, you know just in case, and start handing them $20 to $50 a month.

Three things are basicaly likely to happen from here one out.

1. You live on into your retirement years without mishap paying your premiums the whole time, keep in mind they get more expensive as time goes on. Now that you are retired you don't have the disposable income to afford the now very high costs of the insurance and your spouse or whomever would be left behind dependant on you isn't really in a situation where they'd need the insurance money. So you make a wise economical decision and drop the insurance. You have now spent half a lifetime or more giving the insurance company money paying for other people that died unexpectedly and gain nothing other than some piece of mind while you were paying.

2. Somewhere along the line you catch something that can't be cured or develop a condition that doesn't put you are risk of dieing tomorrow without warning but makes you less likely to live to the average lifespan of 75 or whatever it is now. The Insurance company drops their coverage for you as soon as they can for whatever reasons they can. Even if they can't dro pyour coverage from their side as soon as you can't make payment they look to re-evaluate your coverage and raise your premium astronomically. Either way you've now paid a good chunk of your money for insurance that it seems you might reasonably need in the nearish future but your can't get anymore.

3. You suffer an accident or some other tragedy and die and leave a large pile of money to someone that hopefully supports them long enough to become self sufficient. Statistically speaking the is the least likely thing to happen.

While this is the kind of principle that most insurance scheme's work on in life insurance it's stacked against us, the customer. The only case in which we get any of our investment back is when we die. And while dieing is as sure or more sure than taxes, dieing while being covered by life insurance is decidedly less sure. It's much like how health insurance is least affordable to those that need it. Only atleast in Health insurance even the average customer is going to see some type of return on their investment.

Umm so to get around to what I was going to say might be the problem. If your health care is administered by your life insurance they are going to have much easier access to your medical information and be that much more likely to either drop your life insurance coverage or raise your rates substantially. Personally I feel that most all health and life insurance is a crock and a scam of some sort but with as many unpredictable diseases like cancer out there you can't afford not to have insurance it seems.

[Ula Oh]

I agree with GAP's assessment of the Term Life insurance industries, ummm... habits? I also think that term life insurance is a crock. Put that same amount in a savings account and in no time at all you can afford burial/ cremation costs out of pocket. The possibility of a young healthy person that takes few risks dying unexpectedly is slim. In such a case institutions such as family, church and government can step in to help the financially dependent party get on their feet.

But I think that johntgold's idea was to make the health insurance companies legally responsible in the case of the insured's death.

[johntgold]

I didn't think of some of those details and those are good issues that need to be addressed.

to fix up the idea... I guess it would have to be Health insurance with a transferable cash value (not term life I agree thats a scam); similar to Universal life coverage.

Such that the growing cash value has dividends that pays part of the insurance premium, And they wouldn't want to dump you as that cash leaves with the customer and could be transfered like a rollover IRA to a new company.

Your premiums don't increase and could actually lower as the uncovered amount decreases as the cash value increases. (When you pay for a 250,000 policy that has 100,000 in cash value, you are only paying for the difference of the cost of a 150,000 of term life + Health insurance and subtracting the dividend profit from the 100,000 value (i.e. 100,000 at 5% = 5,000 dollars) If there is excess dividend profit it could be just be rolled into the value.

Additionally my idea included that "The extra cost of this Life Insurance to the individual could then be almost eliminated by having a different organization then pay your health insurance a monthly amount for the privilege of being a beneficiary of your Life Insurance. (This organization would not be allowed to be the Health insurance Company, its subsidiary or parent nor a re-insurer of life benefits with the health insurance company.)"

Are there holes with the above addendum to my idea? ... my brain just stopped producing ideas until I eat some lunch.

If you see more holes or if you can suggest a fix I will enjoy the added discussion.

[LongevityLodges]

I've been doing research to find help with my Neuropathy pain that dosen't respond to standard pain medication. I'm finding a lot of information about concentrated Cannabis Oil that has been found to reduce Neuropathy pain significantly and how it could even be a cure for Cancer, Diabetes, and many other conditions.
There seems to be enough good results from Cannabis that the American Medical Association has now asked for a review of the DEA's scheduling of Cannabis (Marijuana) and requesting that Cannabis be re-scheduled to Schedule II or preferably Schedule III, so doctors can choose to prescribe it to their patients, without breaking Federal Laws.
It seems like the Pharmaceutical Companies and Insurance Companies spend billions of dollars each year lobbying the Federal Government, to keep Cannabis listed as a Schedule I drug beside Heroin. Cannabis is clearly no where near as dangerous and as harmful as a hard drug like Heroin.
I have decided to support organizations like NORML (norml.org), MPP (mpp.org), SAFER (safer.org), LEAP (leap.org) and Patients Out Of Time (medicalcannabis.com), to help change the people's minds about this plant, and stop destroying peoples lives by arresting them and giving them a criminal record. Once they are labeled a criminal, they can't get good jobs or further their education. Then they are blocked from getting public housing or even foodstamps, which turns them into homeless bums that cause you to cross the street to keep from looking them in the eyes. Then they end up stealing just so they can feed their children. All because they decided to use a plant to alter their mood, Without using the legal drug, alcohol, and all the harmful things that involves. Nobody has ever died from using cannabis, although they may have improved their health.
I live in a state that uses persecution against people that choose to use a natural medication, or just reduce their stress and relax.
If I wanted to reduce my pain without using narcotics, I would either have to break the law or move to another state.
Think about it because it truely is time for a change.

The cure for health care is not that hard,

Bud

[timbau]

I've been doing research to find help with my Neuropathy pain that dosen't respond to standard pain medication. I'm finding a lot of information about concentrated Cannabis Oil that has been found to reduce Neuropathy pain significantly and how it could even be a cure for Cancer, Diabetes, and many other conditions.
There seems to be enough good results from Cannabis that the American Medical Association has now asked for a review of the DEA's scheduling of Cannabis (Marijuana) and requesting that Cannabis be re-scheduled to Schedule II or preferably Schedule III, so doctors can choose to prescribe it to their patients, without breaking Federal Laws.
It seems like the Pharmaceutical Companies and Insurance Companies spend billions of dollars each year lobbying the Federal Government, to keep Cannabis listed as a Schedule I drug beside Heroin. Cannabis is clearly no where near as dangerous and as harmful as a hard drug like Heroin.
I have decided to support organizations like NORML (norml.org), MPP (mpp.org), SAFER (safer.org), LEAP (leap.org) and Patients Out Of Time (medicalcannabis.com), to help change the people's minds about this plant, and stop destroying peoples lives by arresting them and giving them a criminal record. Once they are labeled a criminal, they can't get good jobs or further their education. Then they are blocked from getting public housing or even foodstamps, which turns them into homeless bums that cause you to cross the street to keep from looking them in the eyes. Then they end up stealing just so they can feed their children. All because they decided to use a plant to alter their mood, Without using the legal drug, alcohol, and all the harmful things that involves. Nobody has ever died from using cannabis, although they may have improved their health.
I live in a state that uses persecution against people that choose to use a natural medication, or just reduce their stress and relax.
If I wanted to reduce my pain without using narcotics, I would either have to break the law or move to another state.
Think about it because it truely is time for a change.

The cure for health care is not that hard,

Bud

There in lies the rub. The health care system is fraught with so much abuse that you just can't fix one thing with out the other. Health insurance industry spends more time trying to get out of paying than trying to provide care for the patient. The drug industry is trying to hit a home run (get paid the most for the least) every time a drug is released. We have tons of pharmaceuticals on the market that should be greatly reduced in price. Next the legal system that promotes suing anyone for anything. This has greatly cost the American public for everything including health care. Last but not least is the health care providers. They are afraid not to do any and all tests to CYA.

This is like the perfect storm. We are now reaping the benefits of greed and fear. Without someone fixing the system we are doomed to failure. We can't wait for our government to fix the problem as they are a major key in the problem. So it boils down to this generation to force a solution or go down in flames....

Just my 2 cents ...

[Ula Oh]

All well, what does it matter? We are all going to die in 2012, didn't you see the movie?

[Kevin Goebel]

Healthcare reform should include extreme slimming of the paperwork. The last time I had medical treatment the doctor's conglomerate and the insurance conglomerate took over 2 years to settle a $30 fee for something. Each month I got a paper statement in the mail about the "pending" bill.

The other non-controversial (except to opportunistic trial lawyers) change that is needed is to eliminate cash penalty awards for convicted doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and drug companies. Medical maintenance fees should still be included for wronged patients that are victims of neglect or medical mistakes, but if a health worker or drug manufacturer is convicted of wrong-doing or negligence, they should face jail time. That would remove much of the incentive for ambulance-chasing lawyers and greedy relatives of wronged patients and that should reduce malpractice insurance and some of the CYA tests.

Borderline health-care people might decide to get into a different field if faced with jail time instead of malpractice insurance rates going up for their poor health care. The health-care management might focus on preventative screening of and remedial training for their employees if they knew the headlines were going to be "Dr. XYZ or nurse ABC of Community Hospital convicted of health crimes", rather than "Patient SAP was awarded big bucks".

[LongevityLodges]

Hey Ula Oh,

We natives or real Americans believe 2012 is the changing over to a new cycle, that will cause great changes in life and lives.
Could it be that all people will finally be treated as brothers. Like my people tried to do with our European brothers, but as history tells us they mostly brough lies and hate for us, because we lived with the land, not from taking away from it without putting something meaningful back. So they brought wars against our people and even then we tried to make peace. So they made agreements with us that we honored. They used the agreements to bide time until they had a large enough force to defeat us. When the fifth cycle begins we all will need to work together, and we will need a great leader that will make changes that will guide us through the change that is coming.
The leader that rises from the next election will do things like stop the fighting over who makes the most money, and start fixing our mistakes from the last few hundred years.
So here's the deal. Human's are losing touch with themselves and need to pull themselves back from the brink. Every living organism on this planet is in tune with something else. Like cats are drawn to catnip, for example.
Man is connected to a plant that shares the same properties, and that is Cannabinoids. Our brain and all other tissue wired to the brain, are connected by cannabinoid receptors. There is only one plant known to man that shares those receptors. That plant is known as the Cannabis plant. It has several sub-species, they are Hemp, Sativa and Indica.
Cannabis has the ability to save the world from dying at the hands mankind and their careless use of dead matter that should be left in it's grave. We are destroying the Atmosphere, Land and Oceans with pollution. That pollution, for the most part, is caused by Fossil Fuels. Coal, Gas and Oil, that we have extracted, from below the surface of the Earth. Those Fossil Fuels are the product of dead matter.
The Hemp plant grows in the same places where todays seed crops are planted, and should be used in place of the current crops. Hemp produces huge amounts of seed compared to the present corn, wheat, and soybeans that we feed the world with now.
This seed can be cold pressed to extract the oil, which can be filtered and placed directly into the tanks of deisel trucks and cars. It can also be used to fuel todays oil and coal fired power plants. The oil from hempseed burns far cleaner then oil and coal with very little pollution. The carbon dioxide that the hemp plant breathes in, is replaced with clean oxygen that it breathes out. Cannabis oil can be poured over your dinner salad and used in your car from the same container, try doing that with crude oil.
The remainder from the crushed seed can be ground into power to make flour to replace wheat flour and it has a nutty flavor that wheat lacks. Unlike wheat flour that is hard to digest, hempseed flour is very easy to digest and contains many more of the nutrients we need thats not found in wheat. It is also gluten free. Gluten is a tough, sticky, nutritious protein, also found in other grain, more sutable for animals with more than one stomach, and it is also used for making glue, hence glu-ten. While hempseed flour is more nutritious and higher in protein, and it is very easy to digest. Cannabis is a summer crop, while wheat is a winter crop that can be grown in the same field, because there is still a need for wheat also. Cannabis is the safest source of complete Omega-3 fatty acids and more, and is far safer than the deep sea fish source, that can have high levels of mercury. There is no way to prevent the occasional contaminated fish from getting into the grocery store and onto your table.
Hemp fiber from the stalk is very strong, yet it can be used to replace anything made from cotton, and is far softer then cotton and last for many years with little wear. Half of the worlds production of pesticides are used on cotton, while hemp needs very little, if any. Hemp fiber can replace anything made from trees and one acre of hemp produces more usable fiber than four acres of trees, while hemp can be harvested anually, it takes many years before a tree can produce usable fiber. Tree planting is very labor intensive, while hemp can be planted and harvested by farm equipment. Hemp improves the soil while the crops we grow today deplete the nutrients and require huge amounts of fertilizer, which is one of the main sources of pollution that is destroying life in our oceans.
Cannabis Sativa and Indica produce many compounds known as cannabinoids that react with receptors found in the human brain that make them very useful as medicines. Pharmacological actions of non-psycotropic cannabinoids (with the indication of the proposed mechanisms of action) are CBD which has the following properties: anxiolytic, antipsychotic, antiepileptic, neuroprotective, vasorelaxant, antispasmodic, anti-lachemic, antiproliferative anticancer, antiemetic, antibacterial, antidiabetic, antipsoriatic, intestinal anti-prokinetic, analgesic, bone-stimulant, adrenosine uptake anti-inflammatory and T-cells immunosuppressive. CBDV is a bone stimulant. ^9-THCA is antiproliferative and antispasmonic. CBC is a antiproliferative, antimicrobial, bone stimulant, analgesic and anti-inflammatory. CBG is a bone stimulant, antibacterial and antiproliferative. ^9-THCV is a antiepleptic, bone stimulant and anorectic. These are all very important, as they can safely replace many of the dangerous pharmaceuticals doctors are prescribing to us now, that even they worry about giving to you for fear of it damaging your body. There is evidence that these cannabinoids can prevent and possibly cure Cancer, Diabetes, Alzhiemer's and many other conditions. Cannabis has been used for thousands of years without killing one person.
When the DEA tells you marijuana is dangerous, it is to scare you so that they will have job security spending your tax dollars fighting the easy part of the war on drugs. The "Marijuana" (as they like to call cannabis) smokers are an easy target that creates large numbers of arrests, which means more money will be spent to fight this large problem, which means job security. They should be fighting the war on meth labs and other dangerous drug activity, like prescription drug abuse. They would rather use our tax dollars paying triple overtime to police officers in combat gear, so that they can pull up ditchweed that they will photograph or film as being a grow operation, or kicking down some disabled person's door to bust them for their Medical Marijuana that their doctor recommended and their state gave them a permit to use. Now the County Prosecutors are arresting Licensed Caregivers at Marijuana Dispensaries in states that have made it legal. The Caregiver meets them at the door, with the keys to all the doors, and tells them they will unlock the doors for them. They handcuff them, then they break down the doors and use crowbars to open file cabinets and break out all the glass display cases, just to make it hard for them to open for business again. Then they confiscate the Medical Marijuana and all the cash, knowing the Judge will order them to return it at the trial, just to try and hurt them enough financially to cause them to fail and close their doors permanently.
There is an organization made up of seasoned law enforcement officers called LEAP (which stands for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) that openly talks about their experiences while fighting the war on drugs. They admit to seeing other officers take money and drugs from drug busts and then report finding a smaller amount, and expecting their fellow officers to look the other way or get in on the act. The statement is always inferred, if not outright said, that cops cover each other's backs, and if you don't you might find yourself caught in a cross fire. They have seen how drugs are planted to get a suspect's property. This type of corruption is made easier when drug bust are involved.
They say that if drugs were legalized and regulated, they could be sold and taxed at drugstores at reasonable prices where the user will be more likely to buy it there. Then they can be referred to healthcare treatment centers where some will get clean and others will learn more about the true dangers and how to use the drug safely. It won't get all drug users off the streets, but it will make their lives safer, with drugs that haven't been tampered with, so the drug user can't overdose. They would have to use the drug on the primises, and be monitored in a private area until it is safe for them to leave, unless they have a caretaker with them that will take them home. At least it will keep that dose out of the hands of kids. It will also encourage the drug user not share dirty needles, which would reduce the Hepetitis-C problem greatly. Also the money that otherwise would have been spent on the black market, would be used to rehabilatate drug addicts. This would help with the healthcare problem somewhat.
Thats what I've learned and think its worth doing.

Bud

[LongevityLodges]

Sorry about the book, but there is lots of good information.

Bud