A full 80% of Americans have said in polls that they are satisfied with their current health coverage. The plans being rammed through Congress would initially cost $1,000,000,000,000 and will still leave nearly 20,000,000 people without coverage; they represent a power-grab by politicians that is exactly what our founding fathers feared.
I would most certainly not have voted for the Health Care Reform packages that passed the House and Senate. These plans will increase taxes exponentially, will absolutely lead to rationed care and do nothing to control escalating health care costs; government has never driven down the cost of anything. The PR spin from Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi relies on a series of accounting gimmicks and phantom cost savings to achieve budget neutrality.
I’d advocate a policy that begins with tort reform; the American Trial Lawyers Association is one of the largest impediments to change in the health care industry.This policy would also reverse regulation that prevents the private sector from opening up competition, since with today’s laws health insurance companies are prohibited from competing across state lines.
One of our biggest challenges to corralling the cost of health insurance is the 3rd party payer system. We’re used to the doctors and hospitals submitting billing directly to the insurance carriers and we have not had to negotiate with providers and we also haven’t had to shop around for services. If patients and providers negotiated directly for services and payment, the free market would drive down the cost of services. We have seen this perfectly displayed with LASIK surgery. Since insurance companies consider this elective surgery and do not cover it, patients have shopped for best pricing/best provider and doctors have responded with better technology and decreased cost. When the surgery was introduced, it was over $5,000 per eye; it’s now down to $1,500-$3,000 per eye. It will be my goal to apply this thinking and methodology to all aspects of health care coverage.
