"We're 50th in the nation in terms of healthcare, with nearly six million Texans lacking basic health insurance. The first thing we need to do is put the humanity back in healthcare. It's time to give more control to the people who have the greatest stake in the system: the patients. It's just good medicine."
Those are the words of Kinky Friedman, independent candidate for governor of Texas, as he releases his healthcare plan. Kinky calls his healthcare plan TexasCare, and has modeled it after Minnesota's healthcare plan. Kinky says the plan would provide all Texans with healthcare services through prepaid health plans [also called managed care], instead of a fee-for-services system. The plan would cut waste and red tape by centralizing insurance, administrative, and payment procedures, resulting in cost-saving and better healthcare service.
TexasCare will have a four-tiered schedule of benefits and co-payments. The lowest income children will be on tier 1 and have the most benefits and lowest co-payments. Single adults and households with no minor children would be on tier 4 and have the least benefits and highest co-payments.
Kinky says the funding for TexasCare would come from diverse sources - 55% of the funding would come from the state, 35% would come from federal grants, and 10% would be generated through enrollee premiums. The state's portion would be paid for by instituting new fees from several sources, including:
* A 1% fee on the gross revenues of HMO's, nonprofit health service plan corporations, and community integrated service networks.
* A 1% fee on gross revenues of doctors, hospitals, surgical centers, and wholesale drug distributors.
* A modest annual fee charged to medium and large businesses that do not provide health coverage to their employees.
* Licensing fees for international pharmacies approved to sell drugs in Texas.
In addition, Kinky would like to do the following:
1. Restore the patient-physician relationship.
2. Address the shortage of nurses and general practicioners.
3. Bring back school nurses.
4. Join other states in funding stem cell research.
5. Improve health services for university students.
6. Emphasize preventive medicine.
7. Make prescription drugs more affordable.
8. Restore full funding for the state's Children Health Insurance Program, until TexasCare is up and running.
That is Kinky's plan to offer healthcare to all Texans. You may agree or disagree with the plan, but right now, Kinky is the only candidate with a plan to cover all Texans. Kinky is right about one thing; it is time to put the humanity back in healthcare and cover all Texans with health insurance.
His plan is a good start and I'd like to see more discussion of it. Here's a post I made with a number of questions about specific challenges the plan will face. Feel free to discuss there or here, but I'm hoping to see some guesses as to how Kinky would (or should) address those issues.
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