Health Care
(Solution)

The described problem with health care is: 1) Availability to all 2) Coverage for Pre-existing conditions 3) Rising Costs.

We cannot eliminate pre-existing condition clauses on policies as long as everyone has the option to be buy coverage or not. It cannot be an option to buy coverage only after a condition arises. That allows people to go without coverage until a major condition arises and that makes the entire system unmanageable. The true problem here is people who have done the right thing all their lives and all of a sudden are without insurance due to retirement, downsizing, company eliminating group coverage (or any variety of reasons) and then the individual is unable to buy an individual policy covering the condition.

Here are the changes that need to be made:

1. Allow for continuity of coverage on individual policies. If people have had continuous coverage they should not be subject to pre-existing condition clauses when forced to go to an individual policy.


2. Promote HSA - An HSA is basically a high deductible plan coupled with an account the individual/family can put tax free money into to pay for any out of pocket medical expenses. Any money not used is kept by the individual and treated as an IRA for their retirement. This makes people more responsible for their health care expenses vs. a 3rd party paying for all their bills. (See examples below)


3. Require doctors, hospitals and all providers to publish their prices. Now, providers over bill the insurance companies to max out the reimbursement or have agreed prices with the insurance companies. If patients can compare prices from difference providers and are responsible for part of the bill (see HSA) then competition is built into the system. Better providers will be able to charge higher prices and others will try to compete with more competitive rates.


4. Allow companies to write coverage across state lines. Their are plenty of health insurance companies in the U.S. but laws prohibit them from writing coverage in other states. More companies = more competition = lower premiums. We do not need the government in the health insurance business in order to have competition.


5. Tort Reform - Part of the problem with medical care costs in the U.S. is the high costs of lawsuits. The providers pay high premiums for their medical malpractice insurance or they run excessive procedures practicing defensive medicine. Any honest attempt to control costs must find a way to control the costs of these lawsuits.


6. Medicare & Medicaid Reform - The government pays such a small percentage of the costs for medicare and medicaid patients that the other patients must make up the costs with higher prices. If the government paid more of their bill the doctors, hospitals and other providers would not have to charge the paying customers as high of prices to make up the difference.
   
7. Immigration Reform - There are estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. who can go to most hospitals in the U.S. and receive medical treatment with no ability to pay at a conservative estimated cost of over 10 billion dollars a year. Each time they use the system without paying someone else must make up the difference. True health care reform must deal with the ones illegally in the country using the system yet not paying.


8. Good for the Goose - Make Congress and the rest of the government live by the same system they develope for the rest of the country. Why would they design a plan that they are not even subject to?

Greatest Health Care System in the World - Proponents of the president's health care reform have put some doubt put into the fact that our medical system provides the greatest level of care of any in the world. I think we need to address this.

The World Health Organization ranks the U.S. 37th best health care system of the world. The major criteria used to degrade our system is the number of uninsured. Quality of care is not the primary factor but the number of people who choose to not buy health insurance or cannot afford health insurance. This ranking cannot be used to judge the quality of care of the people who receive treatment.

From top to bottom, America is the richest nation in the world We have all the luxuries and conveniences not afforded poorer nations. These luxuries and conveniences have also made us the laziest nation. We do not need to go the the grocery to buy food to cook, we just go out to eat. We do not even need to get out of our cars. When we do decide to cook at home we can buy prepackaged meals. We don't walk or ride to work, we drive everywhere. Americans have more cars per capita than any other country in the world. Technology has made us very efficient yet is has made less healthy. Just go to the pool or to an amusement park or any public event. America is fat! We have an unhealthy life style, we have an unhealthy diet and it puts an extra strain on our health care system. You cannot compare the statistics of a country where the people are thinner, eat better and have more exertion in their everyday life to the stats of Americans.

We do not need to re-invent a new system when the current system provides the highest level of care of any in the world. The goal of this plan is to be the first step towards a single payer system. I say this because: a) the president said that he prefers a single payer system but it might take 10-15 years, b) The current House Bill makes it illegal to add new individual enrollees after the law takes effect. (If he just wanted competition that clause would not be there.) After a few years he will declare the government plan helped but did not go far enough and will attempt to go further until the government has taken over another aspect of the American economy.

Examples of responsible health care with HSA: (Just my experiences!)

1. I had an incident where I thought I was having a heart attack. The hospital ran some tests and saw no signs of heart attack. Ran another test and thought it was maybe just an anxiety attack but wanted to run another test. After questioning the last test the doctor agreed she wasn't going to learn much more and was comfortable with the diagnosis.

2. I hurt my ankle in a sporting event. The doctor did the x-rays and say no break but wanted to have an MRI for a better look. I told him I have an HSA and it basically was out of my pocket and he said he was going to treat it the same way if he found a fracture of it was just a bad sprain so we did not do the MRI.

3. I had some breathing test done due to some asthma symptoms. The bill included a $20 charge to demonstrate how to use an inhaler. I complained and the office told me they just put that on there and some insurance companies pay it but was happy to take it off.