Expansive coverage which saves the city money

My plan is for Neenah to act as a representative of anyone who works in Neenah (not to be confused with people who work for the city of Neenah) or lives in Neenah. These people would voluntarily enter into a pool which the city of Neenah would use to represent these people. Again, joining the pool would be entirely voluntary. Neenah would act on behalf of all of these pool members, and go to the bargaining table for them with health insurance companies. People who are not in the pool would not have to pay expenses for the pool. Thus, this would avoid the controversy of forcing people’s tax dollars to pay for health care for other people. Any member of this pool—which would be restricted only to people who live in Neenah or work in Neenah—would pay dues directly to the pool, run by the city, to cover the costs of their health insurance through this pool.

Neenah’s bargaining power would come from being able to offer these tens of thousands of Neenah residents and people who work in Neenah as potential customers for health insurance companies. People who individually seek health insurance have little bargaining power over health insurance companies, but the logic behind collective bargaining is what would give these people, represented as a whole by Neenah, bargaining power. Of course, this logic of power in numbers is how labor unions function.

As a result, the health insurance companies would offer better, less expensive coverage for everyone covered. The newly-added people would pay an affordable price for their coverage, and the people previously covered—people employed by the city of Neenah—would enter into this pool and get coverage still provided by the city but now at a lower cost to the city.

This plan has no “losers.” The city would save tax money spent on health insurance for its workers because they would be receive better coverage from this pool (yes, Neenah’s employees would ideally enter into this pool too) but at a lower cost to the city. Neenah residents and people who work in Neenah would be able to get better, cheaper coverage. People who choose to not participate in this plan may do so freely, without penalty, and lower taxation would benefit them. Businesses in Neenah would save money by being able to not cover their employees who choose to join this pool run by Neenah. All of this would encourage more people and businesses to move to Neenah, which would increase Neenah’s tax base and lower the average tax burden.

While the health insurance industry seems like a potential “loser,” it is not. It would charge these people in the pool less than it would individually (this is the whole point of the plan, of course), but it gets so many new customers that it would still profit by covering this pool, and the average person in this pool would profit the insurance company (this is how insurance works, of course).