Been thinking about "medicine as a business" in America and although I abhor it, the system isn't just going to change because I want it to. Sooo, I had an idea while listening to all these contenders for president and wanted to get the opinion here on how to drive down prices:
Step 1: Institute a wealth tax (stay with me here) on those earning more than 10M/year
Step 2: Give a tax credit of up to 1 billion dollars for philanthropic donation to pay off medical debt (Collection agencies can bundle this debt and offer it as a product for charitable donation)
In this way, the only administration that would have to be done by the government is to verify the brokers of the medical debt are legit. It is still up to the ultra rich to decide whether they want to donate or not.
Since hospitals are not getting this money directly, there is no direct quid pro quo that would cause corruption (other than a fairly large conspiracy)
The decreased burden on hospitals would mean they could be somewhat more lax about providing care to populations that can't afford it and therefore "supply" of medical care increases but demand should roughly stay the same. In theory this should drive prices down, in practice I would hope it means that people don't lose their house because they worked themselves into a stroke and now have huge medical bills.
TLDR: Tax the ultra rich but give a tax credit if they buy up medical debt.
EDIT: Thanks to those who corrected me. I meant tax EXEMPTION not credit.
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