Health Care 01; Those with no insurance

One way to improve the health of those with no insurance is to set up a special health group. The health group would function something like the microfinance system that's been so successful around the world. Anybody could apply to the Group for financial aid for any health problem, preexisting or new.

If the applicant had no insurance and no significant resources, he would be allocated enough money to begin medical treatment. Payment would be made by the Group to either a doctor, a medical group, hospital, or directly to the applicant if he needed to buy prescriptions or have similar expenses.

If the applicant had inadequate insurance to cover his problem, he would be provided with the additional amount of money needed for his treatment. People with adequate insurance (as determined by the medical treating group) would not be eligible for help from the group.

Any financial help extended to any applicant would be recorded but the applicant would not be required to make any payment, immediately or in the future.

If the applicant regains health and begins to make money, the possibility of repayment arises. If the applicant makes enough to pay income taxes, one of the best ways for such payments to be made would be for the IRS to grant special treatment to those who receive aid from the group. Suppose the applicant had an IRS bill of $500, and suppose he owed $1000 to the Group. Provide that in such a case the IRS would rebate 10% of his IRS bill to the health group. Thus $50 of his IRS tax would go to the health group and $450 to the IRS. The applicant would also be free but not required to make payment to the Health group at any time.

Over time, the Health Group would receive money from donations, from repayments by recipients and by payments from the IRS. The initial funding would come from initial donations.

How much would be needed to set up such a system? Assume a community in which 10,000 people have essentially no health insurance and little resources if a medical problem arises. Assume that an average payment of $1000 per eligible applicant is made. This would be a total advance of $10 million by the Group. In any American community having 10,000 medically insolvent people you are likely to find a number of multimillionaires, and possibly a billionaire or two. A fund drive of the right sort should be able to raise adequate funds fairly easily.

What else is required? Somebody to lead and champion the project.