Devin Finbarr suggests the perfect healthcare plan:
The easiest solution is to hire the folks managing Singapore’s healthcare system. Give them free rein to redesign the American healthcare system from scratch. Then implement the plan exactly. Singapore’s system is the best in the world, they spend 1/4 what we spend in America yet live 4 years longer and have the same infant mortality. [1]
Well, that’s just the easy solution. The harder solution has a number of elements, but this one jumped out at me:
[Any insurance company] must have a strict, pre-defined separation between profits and reimbursements. So the company must declare up front, “We contractually guarantee that 75% of all premiums are allocated towards reimbursement, while all administration, marketing costs, and profits must come out of the other 25%” This separation eliminates the conflict of interest that exists with most insurance companies. The insurance company does not profit by denying you care, because it must spend the money on reimbursement anyway.