Imagine if you could find a healthcare plan that offered excellent coverage, didn’t exclude pre-existing conditions, incorporated several features to promote better health, and was incredibly affordable to boot?

Let’s call such a plan the Neighborhood Health Improvement Plan – NIP for short. Here’s how it works. A group of neighbors gather together to develop a more sensible and less-costly alternative to our crazy-quilt system of health insurance. They decide to join up with other neighborhood groups with similar intent to create a self-insurance system, which increases their buying power and spreads the risk across a wider number of people.

Each neighborhood NIP chapter pays a small monthly fee per member per month for medical coverage. Each chapter is also responsible for paying the first $5000 of medical expenses incurred by all the members in its group. After that deductible, NIP pays 90% of all expenses. Continue reading →