Which of these hypothetical healt care systems would you prefer? Note, these are not real world examples, they are made up. These are obviously only some of the medical services, for purposes of illustration. Assume the rest of the plan follows the general pattern shown here. It is not intended for the comparison to be fair necessarily.
Which health care system would you prefer?
System A (some examples)
Which health care system would you prefer?
System A (some examples)
- 5% payroll tax, no cap
- No health insurance premiums
- No out of pocket expenses for covered items, some items no coverage at all
- Assigned a doctor, no choice
- 1 month waiting time for appointment other than emergency
- Only strictly necessary prescriptions covered. Examples:
- Life threatening conditions (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol)
- Debilitating pain
- psychological
- zantac / prilosec etc. only with serious illness
- antibiotics only with confirmed bacterial diagnosis (wait a day before scrip filled)
- Optional prescriptions not covered
- birth control
- low-grade pain medication (tyl/codeine etc.)
- viagra etc.
- sleep aids
- ADHD
- caps on major treatments
- cancer treatment only on 20% or higher 5 year survival rate, else home to die
- no reconstructive surgery
- no completely optional surgery (cosmetic)
- natural childbirth only (no casearean or epidural except in life threatening situations)
- Illegal to pay your own money for certain services (cosmetic for example) which are not covered
- $200/month premium
- $20 copay for some services
- Own choice of doctor
- 1 week waiting time for appointments
- All prescriptions covered with copay indexed to drug cost
- major treatments covered with 10% copay and annual maximum out of pocket
- all cancer treatments
- reconstructive and cosmetic surgery
- elective caesarian
- Freedom to pay your own money for any services which are not covered.