Medical Insurance Peer Plans

Description

A proposal by Sam Rose at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_thread/thread/668715b7b3114588

"For background, see this article on the "Faith Based Health Insurance" phenomenon at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32630.php

The way this works is that "members send a monthly check, or "share," that ranges from $200 to $400 to the plan or to members the plan designates with "needs," or medical bills. The plans subtract overhead and administrative expenses from the total collected and use the remainder to pay claims"

Members are "vetted" or qualified to join the "plan" based on a letter from their clergy person verifying they are an active church member, and trustworthy person." (http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_thread/thread/668715b7b3114588)

Commentary

Sam Rose [1]:

"So, what does this have to do with Coworking?

Well, this "church plan" shows a plausible legal international route to sharing health care costs among a network of people, religious or otherwise. These "church plan" participants are really just donating money to one another, facilitated by their churches, and by "plan" coordinators. Might a non-religious network of people also think about a way to pool money, and route it to people who need it in this way? I think so.

The system that I envision here is:

1. Participation is based upon the trust metrics of others who are already in the network (others "vouch" for you).

2. Money is pooled on the scale of coworking spaces. Pariticpants pay a trusted volunteer in their local homebase coworking space

3. Verification of medical need happens on the scale of coworking spaces, with the ability to appeal to the greater network shuld the local coworking network fail to assist or address for some reason. Participants may opt to bypass the network and send donations directly to people who are appealing this way

4. Coordination of local spaces is done through a group of elected, term-serving network orchestrators, who are dispersed around the network, and who split up the labor in a diverse way, so that one local person does not become the "lord and master" of their own local region. Other people are elected to act as voluntary impartial mediators and conflict resolvers

5. P2P open identity based trust metrics help keep trust issues transparent

6. All donated monies are totally transparent and accounted for, 100%

The idea here is that it is legal for us to give money to each other for pretty much anything we want to, so it becomes a matter of figuring out how we can give each other money in an equitable, not-for-profit way, that can systematize some aspects, and can buil on inherent trust." (http://groups.google.com/group/coworking/browse_thread/thread/668715b7b3114588)