How about something different?
Everything you spend on Medical CARE is tax deductible, and below a means-tested threshold becomes a refundable tax credit. Everything you spend on Medical Insurance is deductible.
That includes preventive care, vision, dental, replacement parts and appliances, supplies, prescriptions, the works right down to capital improvements to accommodate any disability and scooters and wheelchairs, service animals--all of it. Some will abuse that, others will find it a godsend.
It isn't the rich getting pounded here, they can best afford care (and the best). It isn't the poor--they have medicaid. The elderly have Medicare, and supplemental insurance. But working age middle class people are getting flogged. Not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid (they own stuff), not rich enough to pay for insurance and pay taxes on that money too (20-33%), the Middle Class is the one getting hit from all sides.
Of course, the Socialists have had it out for the Middle Class all along.
One-time deals will only let those in who can, and if someone is not in a fiscal position to be able to opt in, then they will be excluded? No. That stinks.
I like a al carte ideas, I for one do not ever anticipate that I will need a hysterectomy (I ain't wired that way), nor an abortion (elective abortions are something I'd love to be able to exclude), a pap test, etc. My wife, on the other hand, as gutsy as she is, won't need the prostate exam. At our age, I don't anticipate we'll need maternity benefits either. For couples some of those risks might be melded, but for a single guy or gal, no.
I'd like to see some more honest underwriting, too. I use tobacco, but I don't smoke (quit that over a decade ago), but I don't drink, or do drugs.
While we are told (constantly) how good exercise is for us, in 2005, for instance, over half a million people showed up at the ER with basketball related injuries. the tally looks like this: The Top 15:
Basketball: 512,213
Bicycling: 485,669
Football: 418,260
Soccer: 174,686
Baseball: 155,898
Skateboards: 112,544
Trampolines: 108,029
Softball: 106,884
Weightlifting: 65,716
Volleyball: 52,091
Golf: 47,360
Roller skating: 35,003
Wrestling: 33,734
, Well, I don't do any of that stuff, so how about a break so I don't have to pay for all those people who hurt themselves 'being healthy'? I'll pay for the risks associated with Swimming/Diving: 82,354
Horseback riding: 73,576
as occasional activities.
source:
http://www.livescience.com/803-dangerous-sports-america.htmlFactor in my driving record, and I might be a better risk than people who are supposedly healthier than me.
But the system wasn't designed to be fair. I thought I'd get a break on vehicle insurance when I quit smoking, but noticed the language had been changed to "tobacco user". People put more effort and concentration into chewing gum than I do in using tobacco (and likely are more distracted by it), but I'm still paying like I was chain-smoking Chesterfields.
It never will be "fair", but some better actuarial assessment might do something to close all those cracks that seem to open underfoot. But then, the biz wouldn't be as lucrative as it is.