Steve GannMy Health Care Reform Proposal
March 4th 2010 05:23
The President announced his last attempt at getting health care passed this year by incorporating the following four GOP ideas.
•Combating waste, fraud, and abuse by engaging medical professionals to conduct random undercover investigations of health care providers who receive taxpayer money.
•More funding for demonstration projects of alternatives for resolving medical malpractice disputes, including health courts.
•Increasing Medicaid reimbursements for doctors.
•Ensuring Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are in the Exchange.
The response from the GOP was a swift, "too little too late" so the next step is for the House and Senate to count votes and calculate the political risk of using reconcilation to bypass the Senate GOP's filibuster attempts.
While I do agree with the notion that we do need health care reform, I can't support the current proposals for two main reasons.
As a liberatarian I cringe at the words "thou shall" when spoken from the government and forcing every American to either pay a fine or buy into a health exchange is a nonstarter for me. Especially since the taxes and penalties start immediately with the benefits starting in 2015.
Here is what I would do to control health care costs.
1) Cap medical malpractice punitive awards at 250,000
2)Allow citizens to buy health care across state lines.
3) Use the "buffet" approach to health care plans. Pay for only the coverage that you want. if you don't need maternity benefits for example then they are excluded.
4) Invest in modernizing our medical records. Thousands die every year because of transcription errors. Allow tax incentives for modernization to E-scribe and E-MAR software. Getting all health professionals on the same page will cut down on medical errors.
5) Focus on preventative care. We spend too much on disease states that could have been controlled with early intervention. Seventy percent of patients aren't taking their medications correctly. Implement programs like The Asheville Project that provides incentives for patients, doctors, and pharmacists to more closely monitor blood pressure and glucose levels to control those diseases.
6) Continue to provide tax benefits for individuals investing in health savings accounts.
7) Reward individuals who find fraud and abuse in insurance billing.
8) Give businesses incentives to allow patients more sick time for appointments. Many don't have the available time to miss work to visit their doctor and end up getting sicker and exposing co-workers.
9) Shorten patents for medical devices and drugs to ten years and in turn the government will reimburse the entire cost of research and development to companies if their applications are approved.
10) Promote minute and virtual clinics. Too many people crowd emergency rooms when they could have visited a clinic and saved money.
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