Why Democrats got it wrong: Democrats fail to realize that the current system is going broke just trying to insure the people that are on [...]]]> Why a Personal Responsibility Based Health care system will lead to a greater access for all Americans …and why national, private or co-op based health care will fail without it”

Why Democrats got it wrong: Democrats fail to realize that the current system is going broke just trying to insure the people that are on it today. Giving everybody million dollar, health care credit cards isn’t going to solve the problem. It is going to cause an implosion.

Why Republicans got it wrong: Republicans want liability reform.  However, Republicans fail to realize that businesses are making fundamental changes to their hiring processes to avoid providing health care as a benefit.  A good job with health care is hard to find today. It will not get easier. Failure to provide jobs in this country that does not offer health care.

Why a Personal Responsibility Based Health care system has it right: Personal responsibility starts with an individual making choices to lead a healthier lifestyle to limit future health care costs. Failure to do so will increase access fees for the individual which will increase revenues for the system. A prepay so to speak for your current discretions. The combination of a healthier America, individual by individual, and greater access fees for those not participating, will be the foundation for a restructured Health Care system.

John F Kennedy once said “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country

can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

The need for a Personal Responsibility Healthcare plan is at the core of his message of personal responsibility required of our fellow Americans.

It is a plan that asks all Americans to be accountable for their own healthy lifestyle and in return Universal access to the healthcare system will be made available for you.

How can we ask our country to contemplate taking control of our nation’s healthcare, until we take control of our own healthcare by directly tying health insurance into a healthy lifestyle?

The current healthcare system is not responsibility based it is reactionary based.

It is not proactive. It is expensive, and maintaining continued access is a burden on small business. At alarming rates businesses are dropping health care. The uninsured and underinsured that seek medical help end up having their costs carried by the shrinking base of covered insured. Medicare’s failure to pay their true costs leverages the insured rates even higher. The system is a mess. The system is broke.

We have had a paradigm shift in this country.

The shift in our country is not that our health system is broke.

The real paradigm shift, I am sad to say, is that Americans are not healthy anymore.   Keeping people “insured” is not enough.  We have 25 years of deteriorating lifestyle habits, and these must be reversed.  It will not be comfortable … or cheap.

We cannot attempt to fix health care without fixing the root cause of Americas own health concerns.

Many would say the system is not worth preserving in any form that exists today.

I believe it can be fixed, but it will ask all of us to do our part. We need to look at the success of insurance in other aspects of our lives for the answers.

Imagine if our auto insurance was purchased as a corporate benefit in the same manner as healthcare.

Imagine a world where if we drove our autos drunk, crashed the car, and the insurance company said, don’t worry we will pay for that.

Two weeks later, we were caught speeding, crashed the car, and the insurance company said, don’t worry we will pay for that.

Imagine repeating this week after week, person after person all across our country. A nation of reckless driving, no stoplights respected, no speed limits adhered to, no alcohol limit too much for the road.  Is this what our country is contemplating doing? Adding health care as a right, without personal responsibility attached to the hip of it?

Medical care, of course, is merely one component of our overall health.

Nutrition, exercise, education, all leads to a healthy lifestyle. The lifestyle choices we made in the past, today and tomorrow, will influence our need to access the medical care industry and affect costs and premiums of the future.

The personal responsibility healthcare system will combine the best aspects of medical care, along with the required needs of nutrition, exercise, education and fore-warnings.
Here is a small business solution that preserves the existing system but that alters significantly the future of health care:

Let us start with the individual’s responsibility

- Keep ourselves healthy and fit. Healthy lifestyles are no longer a choice, they are required.  Those who do not pursue a healthy lifestyle will pay more.

- Each American will take a fitness assessment every two years. This will impact the premium that each adult will pay. As a result of this assessment, access to certain insurance policies will be made available to you or be limited to you.

- Limitations on coverage will be restricted with failed assessments. If for example you are obese, you will not be eligible for hip or knee replacements until you reach an acceptable fitness assessment. If you smoke, you will pay higher premiums and greater limitations on care.

- Expect to pay more in medical premiums for a long time, if you commit a catastrophic accident while under the influence of drugs and alcohol

Next is the Federal Government responsibility:

1. Stay out of the Health Care at the core. We don’t want government operating the system.  Our government’s role is to enable, regulate and punish. It is not to operate healthcare.

2. Remove the chains of the threat of litigation on the health care system.

3. Revise the laws on the advertising of prescription drugs.

4. Remove from Small Business, the non controllable health care costs like transplants, anti rejection drugs and cancer care. These are items small business has no control over anyway. Work with Insurance companies to create Universal access for all that accept a healthy lifestyle insurance plan.

a. Create a catastrophic Universal insurance pool as an added benefit to the personal responsibility option. Require all insurance companies to share in the responsibility for the financial health of this umbrella insurance pool as a means of stabilizing our health care premiums. Charge an additional premium to cover access to this pool.

i. This catastrophic umbrella insurance pool will provide employee true employment portability at a time they need it most.

ii. Every adult and child in school will have access to it.

iii. The individual’s premium will be based on your Health Risk Assessment score, Fitness/Exercise score, and Age.

iv. Small business can now focus on what they can control. Since insurance companies catastrophic claims will now be pooled, their rates will be more consistent year to year, taking the drama out of health care renewals for the small business.

b. Extend privacy rights into Health Care Access Questionnaires. Allow only age, sex, and a fitness assessment to be used for census purposes. Items that are controllable are the only information that should be required. No preexisting conditions questions are allowable under this insurance option.

c. Each employee will receive in writing a notice of limitation after every fitness assessment. The cumulative fore-warnings are being given to each insured, years in advance of need. Their will be little reason to blame anyone but oneself for failing to heed the warnings. In many cases their could be 20 to 30 years of warnings built up that specifically limit access to coverage based on failed assessments.

d. Reward citizens that engage in healthy lifestyles by opening up access to experimental drugs.

e. Allow for exemptions that are uncontrollable to the individual. This is not meant to be a country without compassion. It is not meant to bring fear to those that cannot for reasons determined by the government, participate in the normal healthy lifestyle responsibility

Corporate responsibility

- Reward and penalize a company for its employees based on their cumulative corporate fitness rating.

- We want corporate citizenship to provide as much on site assistance as possible to bring healthy lifestyles into corporate activity.

- Incent corporations to join community Healthy lifestyle coops that bring community efforts to life.

In conclusion, a Personal Responsibility Health care system will also open access to those that are currently seeing restrictions. More important is that it will be a system that moves America to a healthier lifestyle, a more self confident America and restore pride in our health.

JFK said “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

The America I believe in is one that is not afraid to ask of ourselves to take control of our own health care.

We cannot ask our country to contemplate taking control of our nation’s healthcare, until we take control of our own health!

If both Democrats and Republicans value JFK’s words of personal responsibility to our country, should we not look to act on this health care option today?

Daniel Madigan
President – FEECO International
Green Bay, WI

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