My Own Thought on Health Care Reform

Senator DeMint sent me (and many others I am certain) an update on what is happening in the health care reform issue of the current administration. He expressed his grave concern that what will become the policy of this country will result in the type of horrible health care countries like Canada and Great Britain have, where people often wait weeks and months for appointments, and are denied certain care because it is not in the public interest.

I thanked him for his update on this critical issue, and thanked his diligence in Congress on behalf of rational thinking citizens. I then gave him some of my own thoughts on this sticky wicket we find ourselves in these days regarding health care reform.

Our health care system is definitely in need of some overhaul. It may not be completely broken, but there are problems that allow the radical left to keep taking swings at it and keep attempting to socialize it. But the problems with health care in America has many root causes that are not being addressed by any group. Without these underlying problems being fixed, no new system will work. And the type of care they have in places such as you mentioned, Canada and Great Britian, will seem like a carousel ride to what happens here.

Liability

Insurance premiums for doctors and hospitals continue to skyrocket due to out of control litigation. As harsh as it may sound, there is no life worth hundreds of millions of dollars being granted in malpratice and wrongful death suits. Lawyers are convincing distraught family members to "make it hurt", when all they are doing is adding to the outrageous costs of medical aide. If we cap ALL litigation, perhaps with a set formula that the courts have to use (life expectancy, occupation, expected income, family responsibilities, etc), and add a minimum (so that an elderly man's family doesn't get a few pennies because he was already past his life expectancy), then these ridiculously high lawsuits can stop. This would let insurance companies lower their premiums to a more modest level. And we would want to make sure these companies do indeed reduce these premiums, as it would make the cap on litigation superfluous.

Double Billing

If we stop paying for illegal aliens (and get them out of the country to begin with), hospitals would not have to double bill the patients that do pay. Or bill the insurance companies for both pharmacy costs and pharmacist cost plus hundreds of dollars for two aspirin. Hospitals would return to the concept of actually providing care for sick people instead of worrying if they have insurance or not.

Pharmaceutical Costs

Pharmaceutical companies have every right to try and recoup some research costs by making new drugs very expensive and holding back from letting generic versions from hitting the market too soon. But they need to stop making the US the only country they do this to. If the costs of research were borne by all nations (reflected in the drug's initial costs), then the pharmacuetical companies could recoup their costs sooner and make the drug cheaper faster.

Illegal Immigration

As mentioned above, illegal immigrants account for much of the cost to doctors and hospitals that are forced to eat the costs of these uninsured people. Dozens of hospital maternity wards across the country have closed due to this very problem. Comprehensive illegal immigration reform (where we send most of them back home) would alleviate much of the health care expenses in this country.

Medicare/Medicaid Rolls

A comprehensive look at the Medicaid/Medicare rolls is an important step in getting more people who need better coverage the insurance they require. If we get all the people off the dole, as it were, in these programs, it would free up so much of the money required to improve the system that it would be able to support many more. Working to stream line these programs would also free up money that is currently being wasted in administration.

Pre-Existing Conditions

This phrase needs to be removed from ALL literature regarding health care. With so many people finding themselves in transient jobs or being laid off from company after company in these trying times, no one should be denied coverage because they were ill or injured prior to getting the new insurance. Many will just let the problems go until they can get it covered. By then, their health will often be worse and end up costing both the insurers, the insured and the government more money.

Just as is the case with so many important issues facing our nation today (abortion, crime, etc), there are underlying causes that go beyond the central issue. It will take a progressive thinker that is also fiscally conservative to come up with a complete resolution to our health care problems of today. Unfortunately, the way most politicians get the public to support their ideas is to focus on the superficial. To use an appropriate metaphor, what they get is a Band Aide (tm) that will eventually fall off and, as is often the case, allow both continued bleeding and predictable infection of the very thing they are trying to fix.

I expressed to Senator DeMint, and I reiterate them to you all here, that these are just the thoughts of someone who has neither a medical nor an insurance background. It just seems like common sense to me to actually fix the problems we face rather than do what is flashy and will make sound bite news hounds drool.

If any who read this have their own thoughts on how to fix / correct / overhaul our nation's health care, please contact your elected representatives. We need all the rational voices in DC we can get in these difficult times.