Our healthcare system has many barriers to efficiency. One that I am specifically addressing with this plan is that health insurance providers aren't necessarily motivated to consider the long-term benefits for a plan member of a certain therapy due to the contractual nature of the member/group/insurance provider trilogy. In simple terms, the insurance company doesn't necessarily want to "spend" money to prevent a higher expense (or death) in the future due to the possibility that the savings will accrue to the insurance company at the time rather than presently.

My plan is to improve patient compliance and access to chronic generic prescription medicines by creating a plan that would give very low-cost or free access to all citizens. Perhaps at a later time, the program might be expanded to include other types of chronic medications, but, for now, the generic program is compelling in and of itself.

The plan is to allow all citizens free or very low-cost access to chronic generic prescription medicines. For the uninsured or the poor, it removes barriers to treatment. For the insured, it encourages even further generic substitution by driving co-pays to zero. Generics tend to be inexpensive and efficacious. While many branded drugs offer superior solutions to chronic medical problems (and perhaps should be ultimately included to some extent in this program as well), the initial funding cost might be prohibitive. In the cost-benefit analysis, the real choices might be a free generic vs. no treatment.

Most insurance companies view generics as a huge cost-saver and incentivize plan members to use them (via reduced co-pays). I presume that the vast majority don't go to zero because they aren't willing to actually subsidize the plan member (neither is the plan sponsor). In this plan, I would expect the insurance companies to have to pay the government to have their members be a part of this plan.