'Novel' Solution Will Lower Health Care Costs
By Richard Olivastro
June 24, 2009
Page 3 of 4
No health care benefit payment, reimbursement, etc. or employer provided benefit plan coverage to an American Citizen can be taxed by any level of government within the United States or its territories.
Health care plans, insurance companies, et al will issue payment for contract covered items only to their customer or the employee covered by an employer provided plan. That individual remains responsible for payment to the health care provider.
Health Care providers should provide patients with invoices detailing each service rendered in clear layman's language; plus note the specific industry coding used heretofore to bill insurance companies.
No person needing emergency medical attention should ever be denied physician services or hospital-clinic emergency care. Following medical diagnosis and/or stabilization of condition - whichever is later -- the respective service providers may provision subsequent services subject to arrangements made directly with the patient or responsible individual.
Hospitals, etc. are encouraged to establish charitable foundations, or expand the mission of existing foundations, in order to accept contributions from individual Americans and domestic corporations, to be used 100% and exclusively to defray the actual rated costs of health care services to specific indigent U.S. Citizens. Such donors would be permitted full tax credits.
Any U. S. Citizen unable to pay for contract coverage, or any part of the incurred costs of health care services actually received, can assign their tax credit deduction, up to the actual amount paid on their behalf, to another U.S. Citizen who actually paid the obligation, if that person possesses a paid receipt from the service provider.
Care facilities, Doctors, Surgeons, et al, might also be permitted to deduct as a tax credit up to one-half of the lower published rate - their own, the state medical society, or state facility average - for each service provided pro-bono or free to a patient who is a U. S. Citizen at the time of the service was actually provided. (The patient should be required to sign a statement, provided to the paying citizen, that they have not personally used the deduction on their own tax return previously, and that they understand they will no longer be legally able to do so. Such signed statements must be submitted with the payer's tax return along with a paid receipt issued by the service provider.)
Hospitals, et al should not be permitted to 'spread the cost' of providing services to any one patient, or selected set of patients, by increasing rates charged to any other patients. Every service provider should establish a specific 'fee for service' rate for each service offered in the marketplace. The rate schedule should be published online and conspicuously posted in patient waiting areas, with more detailed explanations available upon request.
This blueprint reinstates individual responsibility for themselves, their family, and other dependents. It should also stimulate the motivation of individuals to find, and retain, employment. Because this approach effectively self-funds citizens in situations without employer provided benefits, all responsible individuals - including those citizens in lower income brackets - are treated equitably.
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