The morass of the current published health care legislation is confusing and incomplete at best. There are pieces that cite costs and fees that do not make sense as to where the money is going to come from nor do they cite how accurate those numbers are, not a single representative has stepped up to confirm any of the financial information, only that there will be surtaxes and other fees to pay for the coverage. Other pieces state the massive handouts and tax payer funded abortions as well as the clear, but not written, issue of the government system undercutting private insurance, especially smaller providers, and causing them to go out of business. This would cause then the individual to go to the government with palms open asking for coverage at that point. Lets also mention the thousands of jobs that would be lost in the process, lengthening the unemployment lines and putting more Americans under duress.
Even with all that and the reduced care, once again the road to ruin is paved with good intention. I personally feel that we need something more cohesive in this country that will make it more affordable for companies to provide meaningful health coverage, under a co-payer system, to their employees. I light of that I propose the following:
1. We must reform Medicare and Medicaid.
These programs have done nothing but further the welfare state and assist in the inflation of costs for the taxpayer. It has also propagated the poor and those on welfare to turn to emergency rooms for their primary care as opposed to the majority who seek doctors for their primary care. Additionally, illegal immigrants and those who are here without a knowledge of the working system have and do currently take advantage of that very system they do not fully understand. All they know is that they can take their kid who has a cough and fever and get treatment without being asked if they are legal or not. So long as they have ID and an address they can get treatment. The staff at the hospital is not allowed to ask their citizenship status, they could be sued and loose their jobs. What is more, the ER is crowded with individuals who are ill informed or do not have a sense of medical care so they turn to those ER's for non emergency items. Since the laws and lawyers are so on top of things, no patient can be turned away for fear of liability issues or the threat of a law suit.
2. We must ring in the lawyers.
A federal mandate must be issued stating that any and all malpractice claims should be capped at $200,000. The state of California has set this precedent by capping settlements at 250k. There are thousands of ambulance chasers and crooked lawyers who are sucking the system dry and putting strain on the insurance companies by suing every time someone gets an infection or a doctor makes a mistake. The fact of the matter is that this practice alone has corrupted the system and effected the premiums that people pay for their coverage. It has strained businesses and made it financially impossible for small business to afford the co-paid premiums to cover their employees.
By capping the malpractice judgements, as well as putting restrictions on medical litigation, the cost to the provider will decrease and open the avenues for insurers to do a higher volume of business making it possible to lower rates.
3. Set clear lines for public programs and abuse statutes.
A clearer outline and agenda to those who receive public medical assistance must be written in order to cut unnecessary costs and eliminate the waste and abuse of the system.
The system is also being taken advantage of at every turn, even as we speak. There are people who go from doctor to doctor, falsifying ailments and having prescriptions written in order to satisfy drug problems or to re-sell on the street. Under any Medicare or Medicaid reform, a valid Medicare ID must be presented and scanned into a system that gives a detailed history of visits to doctors or hospitals and what prescriptions have been issued. Additionally, a co-pay must be presented before any care, even emergency room visits, can be administered, unless the individual is in a state of trauma. Those who willfully abuse the system should be prosecuted or have their coverage suspended. The same should be extended to coverage through private insurers in order to drive down the cost of covering abuse of the insurance system.
In short the direction that the federal government currently takes, and has taken in the past, is a tact that will only cause each American an increased tax burden and dilute the system of doctors and hospitals, decreasing the quality of care and causing much undue stress and increased ill health on account of those things. Socialized medicine is nothing more than an attempt to place more control over the people of a nation. currently European countries and Canada look to eliminate their government subsidized coverage and lower the burden to their citizens, yet here we are, the most free nation in the world that ever was and we march towards that which has crippled financially some of our allies around the globe.
True reform comes in that which is to improve or eliminate the existing system and create the environment in which free enterprise can flourish and thrive making it easier for the individual to dictate their own care, and not to be dictated by a bureaucracy.
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