Healthcare

Thanks to May Hey for this quote. "You will never realize how expensive healthcare is, until it is free." I read a high level view of Obama's & Clinton's thoughts on healthcare today. Their whole general concept is largely rooted in rhetoric. "Preventive medicine through education, diet, exercise blah, blah blah. Listen peeps. You live in the land of the fat and lazy. There is no such thing as preemptive education. At least not any that will last. Their plans are largely akin to a New Year's Eve Resolution.
Seriously, get friggin' real.
Medicare & Medicaid is the living example of the Pareto principle. 20% of a group are responsible for 80% of the, in this case, cost. By going to a Universal system you can creep drastically closer to a Medicare model. It is blood from a stone. Providers must see all comers and get reimbursed on a fee for service basis. The issue is the Government will set that fee for service. Basically treat 'em and take what we give you and like it.
A better model would be something like a no premium Healthcare spending account. Meaning you, as an uninsured consumer have a pot of cash at the beginning of the year. You may use that cash for medical services. Once you have exhausted your kitty, then you are 100% out of pocket. This is similar to retiree health care. Whatever is not used can be refunded as a % of unused bonus, the rest goes back to the national kitty. All uninsured will fall under the Medicare Part D Rx benefit. Where there is a nominal co-pay for meds up to a certain dollar amount, then a chunk (this would be lowered or sliding scale in my model) where the payee is 100% accountable, then catastrophic coverage where all meds are covered. In my plan insured consumers in this program are not eligible to receive branded drugs. Sorry. You want the real stuff, pay for it. Oh yeah, for a knowledge base. A generic med only needs to be within a 20% pharmacologic buffer above or below the therapeutic dose. So one script your 20mg Prozac may be 24 mg, the next it may be 17mg. Gives you confidence does it not? Sorry we are cutting costs here at Hebe Universal Healthcare.
Tort reform. No healthcare reform will be worth a lick without tort reform as it relates to frivolous malpractice suits.
Read up kids. Know what is rhetoric, what can actually be accomplished, and what is truly of importance.