My book published in 1995, Jump-Starting America, The Grass-Roots Revolution, described a plan that would have made virtually all government programs for affordable health care unnecessary. It’s “CHAP”, the Community Health Association Plan. Appendix B of Jump-Starting America tells exactly how CHAP would be organized and how it would work.

Since my book was published, at least one similar community plan has been started and is working well, although it is called by a different name. Maybe I could have helped get it started in many communities back then. Maybe I can help get it started now. It would be strictly voluntary for both patients and health care providers. Doctors, hospitals and other health car providers could participate in CHAP on a non-exclusive basis.

CHAP requires no legislation…no government involvement whatsoever. Zero cost to taxpayers. Obamacare should be repealed in the sense that no one should be required to use it, neither insurance companies, businesses, nor individuals. As CHAP-type health care spreads, regardless of the name or names given to those health plan entities, Obamacare would be continuously diminished and replaced. Existing insurance policies under Obamacare should be continued until the insured persons are willing to exit those policies. CHAP would be snapped up by those insureds as soon as available.

CHAP would not be owned, operated or directed by government at any level, by health insurance companies, or by health care providers. It would be owned by communities on a non-profit basis, governed by community-elected volunteers as members of the Board of Directors in each community, which would include 1/3 to 1/2 of elected volunteer health care providers on each Board. Health insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, and Kaiser Permanente types of health care and insurance would be able to continue. Over time, my guess is that the vast majority of patients, healthy citizens, and healthcare providers would choose CHAP-style health care plans on a totally voluntary basis Why? Because it would be a great system, very low in cost, with great health results and happy health care providers.

CHAP would focus on what is best for each person’s health. Illness prevention and health enhancement would have the highest focus. This would reduce unnecessary illnesses, health care costs, and unnecessary premature deaths. America could become the healthiest nation on Earth, by far, and other countries would start to copy and use our CHAP system.

CHAP health care costs would likely cost its members 25% or less of today’s monthly insurance premiums. CHAP is not health insurance. It is health care with a membership fee. There are no co-pays. Charities would likely provide membership funds for those who cannot afford even such low monthly costs. The Community Health Association (CHA) would likely be able to afford such assistance as well.

Health care providers would no longer need malpractice insurance, since CHA would manage malpractice claims with mediation and arbitration. No longer would unnecessary medical testing be needed to ease fears of malpractice lawsuits. Peer-elected volunteers would help implement very high health care standards among their peers, and financial incentive rewards for health care providers with highest standards of ethics, care, and patient satisfaction would be very helpful. The CHAP system would make it unnecessary for there to be 40 waiting rooms and 40 receptionists in a medical office building with 40 separate offices. Under CHAP, doctors and other health care providers would no longer need to bill patients and myriads of insurance companies. CHAP would be automatically billed via patient-members using their membership cards like a credit card. Savings would be enormous!

Would it take at least two years for CHAP to become the significant health care system in America? Yes. So, let’s get started, and with this goal being encouraged by elected representatives, by President Trump, and all of us, Obamacare can be simply voted as unenforceable, and we can be on our way to better, less expensive health care with far better results!

Thank you for your attention to this Blog.
Your friendly Problem Solver,
Dr.Ed Marshall