Friday, February 15, 2013

Path to Success

I believe the best path to success is to create ways to help others succeed.

I am interested in free market health care. I've followed the debate for decades and am aware of the pitfalls that keep undermining the freedom movement. I also have some ideas which I believe could propel the free market health care debate.

Now, the freedom movement matters more than my ego.

There is enough pundits on this planet already. Rather than engaging is self-promotion. I would rather work on creating an organization that could help the freedom movement put up a good front in the cause of health liberty.

I have followed the debate for decades. I cannot find an organization with a strong focus on free market health care reform. There are many wonderful groups in the State Policy Network. These groups are focused on the policy side of the issue.

For real reform to take place, there needs to be a group addressing the problem from the individual perspective on the business end.

There are some wonderful doctor organizations. The AAPS is doing wonderful things, but it approaches health care from the physician's perspective.


In a free society, there should be hundreds of groups that approach the challenges of our day from many different perspectives.

So, I believe that the first step to promoting free market health care is to create a group with the primary focus on self-funded health care.

Personally, I think that creating organizations and talking about ideas is really fun.

The idea is for a group of people to get together with a blank canvas and ask: How can we put together a program (from the ground up) around Medical Savings Accounts.

I admit. I've worked on this issue for decades and have a plethora of ideas ready to stream off my tongue.

In my day, I've learned that one should spend more time listening to talking.

For example. I think the idea of a Health Care Advocate is golden. I came up with this idea when I asked: "What would happen to a Claims Adjuster if an insurance company changed from a pool-model to a model based on individual accounts?"

A claims adjuster approves and denies claims based on the rules of the pool. If we switched to self-funded accounts, the focus of the Claims Adjuster would change from administer of a pool to an adviser that helps individuals plan their health spending.

This person's job would change from one focused on the pool to one focused on the needs of the client. To highlight this change, I changed the title from "Claims Adjuster" to "Health Care Advocate."


I've registered the name "Health Care Advocates Association" and squatted on the domain HCA.me.

I would love for the group that advocates free market health care to be called "The Health Care Advocates Association" HCAA.

BTW, if you read this blog from the beginning, you will notice that I keep calling for people to hold a meeting on free market health care. My plan was to have a meeting. During the meeting I would ask people for suggestions about a name and I was planning on carefully sneaking in a suggestion: "Health Care Advocates Association."

Here's the deal. Imagine for a moment that I convinced an employer switched from insurance-pool model to a free market model for funding health care.The claims adjusters were told that they were are now "Health Care Advocates."?

In this scenario, who would define the  activities of the Health Cares Advocates?

It would be the advocates who define their position...not me. It would be the people doing the work, and not the pundit pontificating on political issues.

Do you remember in The Incredibles when Mr. Incredible was hunched over a pool charged with denying insurance claims of old ladies. Rather than being the pencil necked bureaucrat trying to keep people from penetrating the bureaucracy, I would turn to Mr. Incredible and say: "Your clients are now empowered with the ownership of their health resources. How do you, Mr. Incredible, help these deserving people make the most of their resources?"

I have watched the health care debate from the 1980s and have watched the freedom movement fail in its efforts to promote free market health care because the pundits arguing for reform lacked a structure to put reforms in place.

The first step to creating real reform is to create an organization to discuss and support reforms.


There have been hundreds of wonderful breakthrough moments when people like Dr. Benjamin Carson mentioned Medical Savings Accounts to Obama last week.

What is needed is for just a small number of Mr. Incredibles to meet and form an organization with a singular focus on promoting free market health care (from the business/individual perspective).

The goal of the group is to create a structure that would help people like Dr. Benjamin Carson succeed in their efforts to restore the concept of free market health care. 

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