The national average health insurance premium for a 40-year-old is $477 per month, which represents more than 19% of the national average income for a 40-year-old. This does not include insuring children, family, spouse, or others in the household. Too much of a person’s income is paying for insurance. Not happy about it? Me either. So, let’s fix this mess previous administrations have gotten us into.
9.7% of United States citizens are uninsured. That comes to approximately 32,243,154 people having to pay for medical expenses themselves or simply going untreated due to lack of insurance or income to pay for medical expenses. Let’s work at getting 100% of everyone covered by insurance.
Every year more than 26,000 Americans die due to lack of health insurance. That comes to more than 71 Americans per DAY. This is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to you as well. Let’s work at getting people into the doctor’s office and treatments as needed.
Proposed Solutions
I’m not going to make any false promises, instead, I promise that I will do everything within my power to make the following solutions become a reality. The following solutions will be proposed and may require approval from Congress. It will be our responsibility, mine as well as yours, to make sure Congress approves these budgets and mandates. Remember, the US Presidency is a team. When the US Presidency is backed by the American people, we can accomplish more!
Reduce Administrative Costs for Medical Services
As one of the main contributing factors for high medical costs, hospitals will be mandated to reduce administrative costs by at least 30% of their current costs. A program will be setup to help medical facilities acquire unpaid interns (volunteers that get experience and/or college credit but are unpaid) in order to offset the loss of revenue from reducing administrative costs. Under this program, interns will be eligible for a future paid role within the medical facility upon graduation or attainment of certain college credits required for the role.
Promote Virtual Healthcare
Virtual Healthcare is a cheaper option for various reasons. All appointments, which can be virtual, should be virtual. Virtual appointments will be mandated to be reduced by at least 10% of their current costs. With the administrative interns within facilities, this reduction will not be a loss for the medical facilities.
Regulate Profits of Drug Manufacturers
Prescription medication prices are soaring, and the drug manufacturers are making ridiculous amounts of profit. Profits will be regulated on life-saving medications.
FREE Annual Checkup
Primary doctors will be mandated to allow one FREE annual checkup per patient without charging cost to insurance. With insurance companies not being responsible for annual checkups, this will drive insurance prices down. This will also allow the uninsured to see a doctor once a year without being responsible to pay for it. With administrative interns within facilities, this will not affect profits of primary doctors, if they choose to hire administrative interns.
Require Cost Transparency
Medical facilities will be required to disclose cost of services PRIOR to those services being completed to give the patient the opportunity to opt out based solely on affordability. This includes services covered by insurance as many insurance providers have a particular cap, which a patient may choose to not exceed or use up their benefits.
Encourage a Healthier Lifestyle
With a healthier lifestyle comes fewer medical expenses. To do this, healthy foods will become more readily available. A program will be setup to help get people into fitness centers with income-driven pricing plans (low income could receive vouchers for free gym memberships, etc.).
Tackle Obesity
This will go together with “Encourage a Healthier Lifestyle”. 41.9% of the United States is Obese and 9.2% of the United States is Severely Obese. Being obese costs money, usually in medical expenses. Obesity increases your odds of diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, among other health risks. Reducing the obesity rate will directly reduce healthcare costs and insurance premiums. A program will be setup allowing those with a BMI of 28 and higher to receive no cost assistance to include a nutritional assessment and advisement, fitness trainer, etc. This program will be run by a mix of volunteers (trainer assistants, admin staff, etc.) and paid professionals (fitness trainers, nutritionists, etc.). Also, reducing the obesity rate will increase the average life expectancy, which will further drive down insurance premiums.