As someone who worked very closely on the development of this legislation, I will be arguing for it as a citizen. I recently laid out the merits of the bill in the Federalist Policy Development thread for all to see, I would encourage the Senators to read my description and consider it when voting.
Allowing HSAs may be a good thing, but I am wary of the levels of reductions in benefits, especially given the huge amount people at all income levels are paying in taxes to fund the program.
We can include a tax relief component, if you'd like. However, this does reduce the cost of care that everyone pays, which provides some relief to taxpayers.
The benefit adjustments work to address the flaws with the insurance model of healthcare. The way the benefits are currently set encourage overutilization, which I've discussed a couple times before. The benefit adjustments also provide a high level of savings and increases the market's information in determining prices, fees, etc. which in turn reduces what is essentially defensive pricing(pricing higher than is necessary due to lack of information and fear of the unknown). That lowers costs on consumers and on the government
As much as I like the guy, there is no such thing as "Fritzcare". But honestly that's the least of this bill's problems, which I am trying to figure out the purpose of. Is this designed to completely undermine national healthcare or is that inevitable result going to be considered an "unintended consequence"? I'm genuinely curious what problem this is supposed to solve.
The terminology can be cleared up to eliminate use of the word "Fritzcare." The purpose of the bill is to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system, move towards a cost containment approach, and improve the quality of life for the Atlasian people.
Like shua noted, Atlasians are levied a heavy tax burden to pay for this program. The removal of market forces and other quality-ensuring mechanisms inevitably lead to a decline in efficiency and increase in cost. The bill cuts costs, saves everyone involved money, and improves the quality of the healthcare system.
I'll give you all the quick and dirty version of the post found here:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=189028.msg4090762#msg4090762.
Moving from an insurance model to an HSA model decreases overutilization. The way it works now is essentially like having car insurance that covers 90% of your oil change, which is ludicrous. By shifting the benefits away from insurance benefits and into HSA benefits, we will reduce the costs incurred by both consumers/patients and the Fritzcare program.
It's important to note that the benefits really aren't being cut. They're being moved. The insurance benefits are being converted into Health Savings Benefits, High Risk Benefits, and Wellness Benefits. These new categories do more to empower patients and save money while simultaneously increasing the quality of care than the blanket insurance model.
The bill makes economic sense. It's better for consumers, good for the budget, and good for healthcare. I go into detail in the post I've mentioned on the benefits of each provision of the bill. I'll be glad to answer questions about that description or other questions about the bill.
