Healthcare insurance as it works currently is merely a subsidy and contributor to our “sick care” system.
Insurance could be used to incentivize health by covering organic, whole food, grass fed products on a consumer level and growth in independent farming.
Medicare and Medicaid programs and Private insurance should be required to cover healthy foods with mandated minimums. Rather than mandates to existing insurance, you could create a separate insurance product that is universal in nature.
There is already a model with Food Stamps that can be used as a roadmap for a direct to consumer subsidy the incentivize and open up access to cost prohibitive healthy products
In addition to access it would create a massive incentive for organic, regenerative, grass fed, small, decentralized farming to flourish.
- Food Co-Pays: a percent % of cost of applicable items.
(example: Grass fed beef is on average 25% more expensive then other comparable beef products. The co-pay would be 75% of the total cost, insurance will cover and pay the grocery store/vendor the 25% difference just as they do for hospitals)
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Creation of Healthy Food Saving Account (HFSA) that would work the same as a (FSA) Flexible Spending account that allows tax free contributions for food purchases.
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Insurance cards become scannable at point of sale to initiate co-pays. Can be food benefit insurance cards just like a credit card to track discounts and report for collection by grocery store/vendor.
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Food stamp/SNAP automatically apply at Medicare co-pay costs.
Financials:
Implementing subsidies for healthy foods could lead to significant healthcare savings by reducing the prevalence of diet-related diseases. A study published in PLOS Medicine estimated that providing a 30% subsidy for fruits and vegetables to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries could prevent approximately 1.93 million cardiovascular disease events and save $39.7 billion in healthcare costs over a lifetime.
Expanding the subsidy to include other healthy foods, such as whole grains, nuts, seeds, and seafood, could prevent about 3.28 million cardiovascular disease events and 120,000 cases of diabetes, resulting in $100.2 billion in healthcare savings.
While these figures are substantial, it’s important to consider the costs of implementing such subsidy programs. The broader healthy food incentive program was estimated to cost $210.4 billion. However, when accounting for the net costs versus savings and health benefits, both programs were found to be highly cost-effective.
In summary, shifting funds from healthcare expenditures to subsidize healthy foods could yield significant long-term savings by reducing the incidence of diet-related diseases, thereby decreasing the financial burden on Medicare and Medicaid.