I can't see how your proposal cut's healthcare costs by one-half .. would the healthcare providers take such a cut?

Dear Walter:
Sorry it took this long to get back to you about your question.Didn't mean to ignore it.

The answer is that all this program does is supply healthcare to everyone at a reasonable price and is not based on cutting fees to doctors or hospitals by 50% as a lot of people think.

As an example, ask a Federal Employee that you know whether the doctors or hospitals that they use refuse to treat them because they don't get paid enough by the healthcare program that they are supplied with. The answer was usually-"what,are you crazy?"- when I asked them that question.

The premiums are all based on the going rates for medical care that the medical profession is satisfied with. The main thing it does is put the healthcare profession on a more sound fiscal basis. As an example, how could the healthcare for a single parent family in N.Y. run almost $15,000/yr. when you look at what the premiums are for a single parent in a well run healthcare program. I assume that you have access to the premiums associated with some well run healthcare program in your area. Just take those premiums and plug them into the numbers that I presented and then tell me what you got for a total.

A major newspaper in my area just had an article on the average cost per worker in a very large number of industries across the country. The average total cost-counting both the premium cost to the emplyer and employee- was $4190/yr. With one covered person per household and approximately 100 million households in the country-the total again is in the low $400 Billions/year. Everything I have ever looked at comes out wiyh the same number and again this is for good healthcare plans-not one based solely on cutting payments to doctors and hospitals.

Thanks for taking the time to write about this. If you have any more questions, let me know and I'll try to respond quicker.

George W Martin
martingw@concentric.net