I have a simple idea that I have not heard anyone propose. I thought of it around the fall of 2008, and even e-mailed some governors and congressmen across the US in November. So far the few laymen and medical professionals I have talked with have never heard or thought about this, have given 100% positive feedback, and the medical professionals have said they want to talk with their colleagues about it. I am not in the medical profession, but it seems to me that the medical profession does the majority of the work while the insurance companies get greater profitability and control of who does or does not get the services needed instead of the medical profession. With this in mind it seems to me that the efficiency would be greater, the cost to consumers would be less, and/or the services covered would increase if hospitals formed an insurance network. In other words, cut out the middleman.
A rough outline of the idea would work as follows –
You pay a monthly rate directly to your primary hospital. The hospital manages, pays, and profits from the premiums. You get an identification card from your hospital with the hospital insurance information on it and the ability to digitally store additional information such as allergies, medical history, emergency contacts, etc. Hospitals/physicians form a network so that if you are ill while away from your primary hospital you can still receive care with minimum to no expense. The primary hospital directly pays the non-primary hospital/physician according to the network terms of agreement.
Now, I understand this would affect the current healthcare industry, and could even revolutionize it to the extent that healthcare insurance companies go the way of the dinosaur. At the minimum, it would create internal and external pressure on the current healthcare insurance industry to pay hospitals/physicians better, provide more competitive rates to their clients, and/or cover more services by creating more competition.