The Falconist Health Care plan

The big lightingstorm in American politics today is the health care debate. We, the Falconist Party believe America needs a universal health insurance plan. However, we need an American health care policy that not only insures everyone but provides the health care Americans need, improves the overall health of the American people, and drastically reduces the share of the GDP America spends on health care. Here are the elements of our plan.

1. The cornerstone of the Falconist Health Care program will be the Guaranteed Healthcare Access Plan. In a nutshell, the GHAP involves the issuing of healthcare certificates to all legal residents to enroll themselves and their families in a private insurance plan offered by an insurance company. Under the GHAP, all insurance companies will have to accept all those who wish to enroll regardless of pre-existing medical condition, therefore reducing the cost of underwritting and screening out those who would previously be considered "uninsurable". The GHAP will be financed by the FairTax under our version of this plan. A National Health Board modeled on the Federal Reserve Board will oversee this system and monitor the quality and cost of health care in America. The GHAP will eventually replace SCHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, and the entire employer-based health insurance system.
2. Fund health professional schools to hire the instructional staff necessary to train more doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and other skilled health care professionals. We will fund all private, public, and faith-based universities to develop degree programs and schools to train the health care workers America needs.
3. Establish a Health Corps as part of our Mandatory National Service program. Health Corps volunteers will staff rest homes for the elderly as well as staff urban and rural health care facilities.
4. Establish a National Cure Center in Washington D.C. to research cures for diseases such as AIDS, Cancer, MS, ALS, diabetes, and so on. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound a cure. However, an ounce of cures is worth a pound of medicine. If we actually began to cure diseases instead of just using medication to patch people up to get them to the next stop, we may see an overall decline in health care costs.
5. Increase overall funding in medical research and technologies that yeild medical benefits such as nanotechnology.
6. Implement programs that encourage people to live healthier lifestyles. We have a society that accomadates smokers with "cigarette breaks". How about giving people "exercise breaks" to encourage people to exercise? How about encouraging companies to establish physical training programs for their employees?
7. The rising cost of health care is a symptom of the "graying of America". As America's elderly makes up more and more of share of America's population as a whole, then health care costs will continue to rise as the elderly consume the most health care. We need a program that will reverse the "graying of America". This will be outlined in a later blog. But our program will consist of implementing pro-family policies, outlawing abortion, and increasing legal immigration while cracking down on illegal immigration. If we reduce the share of America's population that is above the age of 65, we will see health care costs of the share of the GDP decline as well.