Petition now: time for change in the US healthcare system

January 15, 2012

Welcome; please consider our appeal for a different kind of US healthcare system, our attempt to provide as close as possible, a single payer system. This is not a government-run program, but a private enterprise operation, competing for a federal startup grant opportunity offered by the White House.

Of course, feel free to skip directly to signing the petition and show your support. We're not asking for money or any commitment, just a show of support for the idea!

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Healthcare is broken in the US.

According to the OECD we spend nearly twice as much per capita any other country on healthcare, yet not only is everyone not covered, but also we don't even live as long as people in Australia, France, Spain, or even Chile.  Nor is it purely environmental; Australia has similar obesity statistics as the US, spends less than half what we do per capita on healthcare, and its people live up to 3 years longer on average.

A major culprit for this?  Healthcare providers can never be sure they'll get paid -- so they increase their prices so if one in four people can afford to pay, they're still getting by.  As a result a two week stay in ICU can cost ~$200K; ruinous for all but the very wealthy,  unless you are very sure of your insurance.

And how sure can you be?  Just recently I personally heard the story of a guy, employed and insured, who needed chemotherapy; his job had fully paid up his insurance.   The health insurance corporation refused to pay for the chemotherapy yet quite happily continued to take premiums from his place of work.

Then you have situations where health insurance corporations agree to pay but then change their mind, leaving the patient to pay for the treatments instead; if the patient or family can't pay they have to go bankrupt -- which also leaves the doctor unpaid. This is unconscionable.

Doctors spend hours on the phone wasting time trying to get tests approved by the health insurance corporations only to get a different test approved. I've seen it happen in person.  Doctors have to spend more time trying to get paid than being doctors.

We at AdkoMeds™ believe that doctors know what they are doing. We also think they are better off treating patients rather than wasting their time on the phone with health insurance corporations. 

We are proposing a change.

The healthcare system we are proposing would guarantee to pay healthcare providers. If they provide a service to our clients we will pay them.

We'd issue you a card which you take to your healthcare provider, they use it to access and update your medical records, and we then pay them once a month for the treatments they have provided to our clients. We would also endeavor to make sure there was no co-pay or deductible for our clients.

And no, we don't care if you have pre-existing conditions. What you pay us will be based purely on your income.  Even if you're ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid/CHIP but if you are living below or near the poverty level it would be entirely free.

If your favorite healthcare provider is not on our system, we'll still refund you your out-of-pocket expenses up to the amount we would have paid your healthcare provider if they were with us.  (You are completely free to retain your health insurance.)

We would be able to provide such coverage in part due to our own advisory board of doctors, knowledgeable about what constitutes essential treatment across a variety of disciplines, and what new treatments are becoming available.  These doctors would not be required to approve your treatment; instead they would regularly and anonymously review treatment provided to our clients.  Our review board will not have access to identity information, only treatment records; though we trust doctors to do their job, this will allow you an automatic "second opinion" that you are not being overtreated, while at the same time this second opinion can help shield good doctors against concerns over malpractice suits.

So what would we cover?  Regular checkups with your local doctor, including essential screening; referrals to specialists, and treatments (including hospital stays) for emergency and/or life-threatening conditions.  If you're sick or injured, you should be covered; treatments which are essentially cosmetic (other than reconstructive) won't be.

We are devising this healthcare system as a pilot program now.  We are currently in a round of federal grant applications to make this healthcare a reality; succeed, and this more accessible system could become available nationwide. 

No, it's not a single-payer system... yet.  But this is a program we have a fighting chance to get actual funding for right now.  And we have designed it as a "stepping stone" program -- the "premium" is based on your income, like income tax, and not your age or existing conditions, the coverage is designed to be able to become universal, and we rely on doctors first to do what is best for you, rather than making them call for permission or to see what is covered first.

To make this happen, though, we need your support -- a moment to sign our petition, to be submitted with our funding request, is all we ask.

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AdkoMeds


adkomeds@gmail.com