Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban used his entrepreneurial experience to develop a plan to fix the U.S. healthcare system, and he wants your help.
Mr. Cuban argued the three main stakeholders in the ACA — payers, providers and consumers — are all unwilling to accept reduced benefits leading to what he believes is a near "impossible" ACA fix, according to a post on his weblog, Blog Maverick.
Consumers mitigate health risks by attempting to find jobs with ample health insurance or by buying an inexpensive, high deductible option and attempting to "save enough to cover the deductible." Mr. Cuban argued, "When disaster hits, we rarely have enough."
To deal with inevitable personal health disasters, he suggests a single-payer system. Mr. Cuban said "whether [through] Medicaid or a new program, every single person in this country should be covered 100 percent for chronic physical or mental illness for any life threatening injury."
Under Mr. Cuban's plan, individual and company premiums earmarked for significant risks would go to the IRS, with insurers paying for the remaining care cost.
"There would be no mandates. There would be no individual penalties. No Tax Credits. No subsidies. No offsets or deductions for buying higher end insurance. This will be single payer (yes I know it's a dirty phrase in this country) for chronic physical or mental illness and for any life threatening injury," he wrote.
By taking expensive healthcare risks away from payers, the insurance companies wouldn't have to plan for catastrophic costs.
"We all share the same risks, we all can share the costs of our greatest risks," he wrote.
He admitted, that the single-payer plan has "something for everyone to hate," but encouraged discussion to improve on it and "make the concept better."