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Before we “reform” a $2.6 trillion
system, which works for 85% of Americans, let us
tackle the obvious problems.
 Reform the tort system. Texas did it, and
now Oklahoma is working on tort reform because
they are losing their doctors to Texas. Tort
reform reduces doctor’s and hospital’s insurance
rates, and it reduces “defensive medicine”
(extra tests to defend against law suits). Who
pays for them? You do.
Eliminate the
“single state” limitation on insurance
companies. With more size they can negotiate
better prices - as the Canadians do for their
drugs. We do NOT need a government plan to do
this. It is interesting that the liberals in the
House are demanding a national public plan, not
state plans, because they say that the public
plan needs to big enough to negotiate better
rates. BUT THEY REFUSE TO ALLOW INSURANCE
COMPANIES TO CROSS STATE LINES.
Require Medicare to pay 100% of costs, not
80-85%. Hospitals and doctors charge insurance
companies 30-50% more than Medicare to make up
for the Medicare underpayments. Your premiums go
up – this is a huge hidden tax. Click on the
link for an interesting analysis of the impact
that Medicare underpayments when combined with a
public plan.
If Medicare pays their
fair share, insurance premiums go down and more
people and small businesses can afford to
purchase medical insurance.
Legislate
continuance and portability so that once a
person has company insurance, if they leave the
company they may retain that insurance
indefinitely as long as they pay the premiums
that is the same as the company pays for their
employees. If they decide to change insurance
companies, they cannot be turned down for
pre-existing conditions.
Eliminate
conflict of interest issues. Doctors must be
prohibited from receiving any commissions for
drugs or tests that they order or recommend for
a patient. Doctors and pharmacists must make
patients aware of any generic drugs that are
comparable to the branded drug.
Reduce
protected patent time for a drug. Drug companies
need to be able to make money for their risks
since the vast majority of drugs never receive
FDA approval and those that do must cover the
costs and risks for those that do not receive
approval. But the time period should be limited,
but fair.
End the practice of
reformulating drugs, e.g. permitting a drug
company to make an insignificant change to a
drug, then to start the patent protection period
over again must be stopped. I have great regard
for our pharmaceutical companies, and they
deserve good profits for the risks that they
take to develop new drugs, 90% of which never
reach the marketplace. But they should not be
making outrageous profits.
Require
that preventative medicine be included in all
insurance policies.
Permit the
insurance companies to offer health related
rebates for those who work to maintain their
weight and health conditions.
When these
improvements have been absorbed, revisit the
issue to determine the next steps for America to
have a cost effective, world class health care
system.
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Bendas
For Congress
