Saturday, December 17, 2011

Making the Medical Savings and Loan Real

What is needed to bring the Medical Savings and Loan into existence?

The first step is to create a non-profit Medical and Loan Association. To do this, you would a group of people (maybe four) to create a board of directors and you need about $1,000 in legal fees.

The association could be created under the umbrella of an existing organization … but needs enough independence so that it could spin off into its own entity.

The first step of the board would be to edit and finalize the primary description of the plan. This could take up a full evening.

The MS&L association would be a coordinating body. The association exists to define the Medical Savings and Loan and to coordinate educational, charitable and business activities related to the concept.

After finalizing the definition, the association would need to coordinate the editing and publishing of a book. This could either involve a person proofreading what I've written or a person who wants to co-author a book by adding their content. We have to get a book out NOW, and I would prefer just the proofreading option.

Self publishing packages range from $500 to $1000.

I've been unwilling to borrow to pay this fee because I fear I wouldn't recap the investment on an unedited book. If I had an editor and a group to help advance the idea, I wouldn't, I would gladly swipe the credit card and pay the fee.

PS: I don't have the money to pay an editor out of pocket, but would be willing to pay an editor a portion of any profits on the book.

Because time is critical, I think I would want to take the path of publishing a short political pamphlet style book followed by a more detailed fact driven book in a year or so.

The second step of the Medical Savings and Loan Association would be to launch an educational effort. This would involve coordinating public speakers to talk about health freedom.

The Medical Savings and Loan is a ready made platform for anyone who wants to play the role of free market pundit during the 2012 election. Something I have no desire to do.

In its first year, the tasks of the Medical Savings and Loan Association are almost all purely educational and political. If the idea takes root, the association will need to transition into more of a professional operation.

In the second phase, The Medical Savings and Loan Association would continue to define the plan and coordinate educational efforts. The MS&L Association would need to coordinate charitable and business activities associated with the plan.

The mantra of the Medical Savings and Loan is "Those who can self-fund their care should do so. Those who cannot should receive assistance."

This second task involves a great deal of actuarial analysis. The members of the association would pour over financial and medical expense data to help the financial advisors determine when their clients need to seek charitable care. The MSLA would need to work with charities to assure they have funds to provide that care.

Since the program has two phases, the association could be set up by anyone, of any background. All it needs is four or five people who can muster up enough money to pay the legal and filing fees to start a non-profit.

If the idea takes hold, it is likely that the first group would get spun off and replaced by professional health care administrators.

I imagine myself being spun out of the picture in the second phase.

My ambition is to expose the insurance-pool model of funding health care as fraudulent and anti-market. I would love to be either the author or co-author of a book on this subject.

I do not believe that the free market is about people living in isolation. Free market business activities, by their nature, are group activities.

If there is no-one in the United States, other than me, willing to discuss health freedom; then all efforts I put into the program are pointless.

I find the idea of writing a book that does not go through any form of peer review abhorrent. Likewise, I am appalled at the idea of trying to promote an idea that only backed up by my personal research.

The correct path is to find a group of people interested in advancing health freedom (ie, restoring America). The group would discuss the issue, the present the subject to the world at large.

The left is going to lampoon the Medical Savings and Loan as a system in which people are forced to stand alone. To avoid this criticism, the program simply must go through peer review and have a group supporting it.

The free market is not about people standing alone. It is a system of exchange that holds the individual in high esteem. The free market gives people control over their body, their mind and their property in order to facilitate exchange within a group.

I have decades worth of work on the issue of health freedom. If a small group of people wanted to spend some time exploring the concept of health freedom in detail, they might be in a position to make a big difference.

But there is absolutely nothing I can do if I am forced to sit here in complete isolation and poverty.

Anyone interested can contact me on Community Color.

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