Healthcare
We want quality, affordable healthcare. The parents of a child who gets cancer or an adult with a life threatening illness should be focusing on getting well and not worrying about falling into bankruptcy. The United States pays almost twice as much as any developed country in the world for healthcare and yet ranks near the bottom among developed nations in life expectancy and infant mortality.
I propose doing a comprehensive cost/benefit analysis of the following proposals:
Medicare
Lowering the Medicare age to 55.
Competition
Increasing competition between insurance companies across state lines.
Choice
Giving people a greater choice in the type of insurance they want to purchase, minimal or comprehensive.
Clarity
Insurance benefits should be easy to understand and easy to compare policies to each other.
Tax Benefits
The cost of an insurance policy should be deductible to the individual the same as if an employer purchased it.
Portability
Making insurance portable between jobs. Your insurance policy should belong to you not your employer.
Radical Transparency
A hospital is the one place you go in without the slightest idea of how much anything costs. I favor requiring healthcare providers and pharmacies to publically provide a comprehensive list of charges for common procedures, medicines and supplies.