How to fix healthcare for free
My biggest concern with government run health care is that Obama and the democrats in congress are using health care to further their control of the US economy, and not as a way of actually reforming the US health care market – there are many flaws with it, most of which are simple problems in supply and demand… we don’t have as a country enough doctors to treat everyone even if they were insured. But, I won’t spend time detailing problems with government health care, instead I’ll offer solutions that would dramatically transform the health care industry without costing the taxpayers a single cent.
Tort Reform – This is the biggest reason that health care costs have skyrocketed. My job is to make sure that doctors are competent, and fit to practice medicine, and while there are some bad apples, they do get tossed out. People have to accept that there is risk in life, and that life isn’t always fair. While we should do everything we can to right wrongs, making the entire health care system pay the price for those bad apples exponentially increases the cost for everyone. This would single handedly provide the most help to easing the cost of health care.
No denial for pre-conditions – this is included in the government health care plans, and is a good idea.
Tie health care insurance to individuals not to employers – most people switch jobs 5-7 times in a career, therefore they also switch health insurance carries that much too. Insurance companies have no incentive for doing preventative care and treating you for the long term, because in the long term, they won’t be insuring you! So instead, they only focus on fixing (read: paying for) immediate needs. Any study shows that preventative care is a little more expensive up front, but will save tremendously on the back end, but the insurance companies won’t be insuring you then, so they aren’t focused on that.
Reform health care education standards – other countries allow pharmacists to dispense certain types of drugs. In the same way, we need to reform the medical education system so that simple health care professionals (call it a nurse-lite) can diagnose 80% of common health issues from a clinic in Wal-Mart. This would be the second biggest impact to the health care system because we could then train these professionals and have them practicing without forcing them to spend 7+ extra years in school and saddle them with 200K+ in personal debt before even starting to practice. Then they wouldn’t need to charge insane prices in order to make a living. This would also give most people (especially the poor) a place to go (instead of the emergency room) that wouldn’t break their bank just to clear up a bacterial infection. I already get frustrated when I have to see a doctor to get a prescription for cipro. That’s insane.
Legislate transparency in hospital pricing – If your leg is broken, and you’re sitting in the ER, you don’t care how much fixing that is going to cost. That being said, a couple of months ago I went in for an ultrasound on my thyroid and even though I have health insurance, I got stuck with a $250 bill. If there was transparency in what I was being charged and had the option of selecting the site that offered the best price/service combination I might have gone somewhere else that would have been cheaper. That would also force hospitals to compete in pricing, thus lowering the costs. You don’t go to a restaurant, order and eat before knowing the price of anything, and then get surprised with a bill, but that’s how hospitals operate now.
Allows health plans to compete across state lines – more competition always drives down cost. The fact that insurance companies can’t do this already is ludicrous.
Tie the cost of health care insurance to the risk of the individual – if you’re middle age, 50 lbs over weight, and smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, your healthcare costs should be dramatically higher than a healthy, non-smoking 25 year old’s because you’re much more likely to have major, expensive medical issues caused by your own behavior. America is fat, and that’s a huge problem – if given a financial incentive to get healthy, I bet a lot of people would!
Institute health savings accounts – This is what I want to do. Allow people to put pre-tax money into a health savings account that allows me to decide how to get to spend my health care money – instead of giving it to an insurance company month after month whether I get sick or not. If I’m healthy, I get to keep all the money until I actually need it, and not pay ridiculous premiums. You would then also buy a high deductible (in case of cancer) insurance policy just in case something major happens.
Ultimately, I just have very little faith that the government can run ANY large program effectively – mainly because I’ve yet to see them do it.
Great post with great suggestions. Unbelievable that none of these are even being considered in the current proposals.