I seem to recall my parents had some sort of "Co-op
Homeowners Insurance". Everyone would pay their
premiums, over the year claims would be made, and at
the end of the year, any surplus (after claims and
overhead) would be redistributed to the members (less
claims made).
I always thought this would be a neat thing to have
and would also work for Health Insurance, but the
tricky part is getting a real big pool of money for
starting so that if you get hit by a lot of claims
early on you can cover them.
But then I notice: Minneapolis has a lot of health
care expenses and a large part of budgetary problems
are related to this.
What if we had a Minneapolis Health Care Union?
Basically, have the city become self insured. Then as
a way to start making life better for businesses and
individuals in the city, allow others to join in the
pool.
Of course, we'd need to hire some experts in setting
the premium costs based on risks (like smokers should
pay more than non-smokers), but even if it isn't done
perfectly, as long as more money is collected than
paid out, and the surplus is proportionally
redistributed to the payers (city, businesses, and
individuals) at the end of the year, it should work
out fairly well!
I actually believe that having a number of health care
unions could be superior than a national health
coverage in some ways (although I can see some bad
things too), and why not have Minneapolis start it?
Even if national is the way to go, start it out local
in a way we can afford...
So, anybody think these are good ideas, or am I
becoming one of those crazy folks that spout lots of
idealistic but unworkable plans?
* MHCU (Minneapolis Health Care Union)
Oh, and as long as I'm at it:
* Bidding preference to worker-owned businesses
(followed by actively owned businesses)
* Bidding preference to locally-owned businesses
(followed by regionally owned businesses)
* IRV (Instant Runoff Voting)
Seriously, some feedback and criticism would be
nice... Am I crazy or are any of these the sort of
things politicians may wish to add to their platforms?
- Jason Goray
Sheridan, NE
(whoops, forgot to spell check the last post. dang.)
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