« Blogging can't change Washington... VOTING CAN! | Steve Everett's Blog | America ignored Obama on Iraq. Will we ignore him on health care? »
Reducing health care costs? Eliminate the middle man.
As President Obama pushes harder and harder to finally bring affordable health insurance to all Americans the fatcats who are making billions are pushing back equally as hard. Who will win the tug of war? I hope (and believe) that this time the winner will be health care that will be affordable for all Americans.
There are many ideas floating around and legislation has also recently been passed in the House. I believe the easiest, best and fairest way to bring about health care reform is to reform the basic fundamentals of the system. One of the biggest, most profitable and unnecessary component in the current system is a highly profitable middle man, the health insurance industry. This industry IS NOT needed and is the single biggest cause of skyrocketing costs and immoral denials of coverage. The billions saved annually, along with other proposals, would likely be enough to make basic coverage affordable for all Americans.
This would leave us with a much simpler, efficient and less expensive single payer system. The government could operate the collection of premiums and payment of claims or with government oversight this could be done in the private sector with a nationwide non-profit coop or exchange. If delivering a postal letter is important enough for the U.S. government to be involved with then making life saving health care affordable for all Americans should also be important enough for government involvement.
A few other random thoughts I have on health care:
Physicians who test to see if a surgery is necessary and the physician who does the surgery must not continue to be the same person. There is TOO much conflict of interest in this situation.
Actually future health care will likely need to be a three step process with three types of physicians involved. One who focuses on prevention and determines if and what tests should be performed. One who performs the tests and the physician who does the surgery or needed corrective procedure.
(1) Dr. Prevention, who would work with their patients to prevent medical problems. Probably Dr. Preventions will more and more rely on genetic testing and genetic analysis along with traditional preventative procedures.
(2) Dr. Tester, who would receive patients referred from prevention specialists. They would be licensed to ONLY see patients referred from prevention specialists who suspect a medical problem. That would reduce the overall cost of medical care by drastically reducing the number of unnecessary tests.
(3) Dr. Surgery, who would do the corrective procedures and who would only be allowed and licensed to do surgery on patients referred by testing physicians.
Using this three level system of care would enormously reduce the number of unnecessary testing and surgeries thereby greatly reducing the overall cost of health care in America.
Back to the health insurance industry for a minute. No, I haven't changed my mind, the industry should be eliminated and done so as soon as possible. This will be an enormous savings to the citizens of our nation. The nation as a whole however should not just throw these health industry employees to the curb. A portion of the savings should be allocated for transitional financial support as their current jobs are phased out and for retraining and doing what needs to be done to get as many of the former employees new jobs.
Health care in America can be improved. It must be improved or at it's current trajectory it will in years to come cause financial ruin in America. I think it's time. I think the right person is at 1600 Penn Avenue and I think major health care reform in America is just around the corner.
I used to be a regular blogger but not so much anymore. On Tuesday President Obama asked for bloggers to get involved in the push for reform. Mr. Obama, I hope I have now done my part... and in the coming weeks I know you will. Good luck Barack. I know you will never forget what your mother experienced in her final months and I believe that, along with your incredible intelligence will be enough to get a moral health care system for America so that fewer and fewer future mothers will have similar experiences.
-- cross posted to SteveEverettBlog.com, DailyKos and various other media outlets.
There are many ideas floating around and legislation has also recently been passed in the House. I believe the easiest, best and fairest way to bring about health care reform is to reform the basic fundamentals of the system. One of the biggest, most profitable and unnecessary component in the current system is a highly profitable middle man, the health insurance industry. This industry IS NOT needed and is the single biggest cause of skyrocketing costs and immoral denials of coverage. The billions saved annually, along with other proposals, would likely be enough to make basic coverage affordable for all Americans.
This would leave us with a much simpler, efficient and less expensive single payer system. The government could operate the collection of premiums and payment of claims or with government oversight this could be done in the private sector with a nationwide non-profit coop or exchange. If delivering a postal letter is important enough for the U.S. government to be involved with then making life saving health care affordable for all Americans should also be important enough for government involvement.
A few other random thoughts I have on health care:
Physicians who test to see if a surgery is necessary and the physician who does the surgery must not continue to be the same person. There is TOO much conflict of interest in this situation.
Actually future health care will likely need to be a three step process with three types of physicians involved. One who focuses on prevention and determines if and what tests should be performed. One who performs the tests and the physician who does the surgery or needed corrective procedure.
(1) Dr. Prevention, who would work with their patients to prevent medical problems. Probably Dr. Preventions will more and more rely on genetic testing and genetic analysis along with traditional preventative procedures.
(2) Dr. Tester, who would receive patients referred from prevention specialists. They would be licensed to ONLY see patients referred from prevention specialists who suspect a medical problem. That would reduce the overall cost of medical care by drastically reducing the number of unnecessary tests.
(3) Dr. Surgery, who would do the corrective procedures and who would only be allowed and licensed to do surgery on patients referred by testing physicians.
Using this three level system of care would enormously reduce the number of unnecessary testing and surgeries thereby greatly reducing the overall cost of health care in America.
Back to the health insurance industry for a minute. No, I haven't changed my mind, the industry should be eliminated and done so as soon as possible. This will be an enormous savings to the citizens of our nation. The nation as a whole however should not just throw these health industry employees to the curb. A portion of the savings should be allocated for transitional financial support as their current jobs are phased out and for retraining and doing what needs to be done to get as many of the former employees new jobs.
Health care in America can be improved. It must be improved or at it's current trajectory it will in years to come cause financial ruin in America. I think it's time. I think the right person is at 1600 Penn Avenue and I think major health care reform in America is just around the corner.
I used to be a regular blogger but not so much anymore. On Tuesday President Obama asked for bloggers to get involved in the push for reform. Mr. Obama, I hope I have now done my part... and in the coming weeks I know you will. Good luck Barack. I know you will never forget what your mother experienced in her final months and I believe that, along with your incredible intelligence will be enough to get a moral health care system for America so that fewer and fewer future mothers will have similar experiences.
-- cross posted to SteveEverettBlog.com, DailyKos and various other media outlets.
Advertisement
I agree with you on the insurance industry but disagree on everything else.
The system that you describes reminds of my trip to the city hall to get a remodelling permit.
First, you need a permit for everything that exceeds $50 value. Even if you do it in your own house, by yourself. You need drag your ass so that one department after another can check if you owe any taxes, paid for the city services (sewage, etc).
The people who work there, paid with your tax dollars, treat you like they're doing you a favor. They discuss their personal matters with each other as if there's no line of 50 people waiting to be dealt with.
They move slowly and they show very clearly that they'd rather you weren't there. They don't work for you - you work for them. You need to be nice and kiss ass, unless you want complications with your permits.
That's what's going to happen under ObamaCare. I sincerely hope that his he will realize that while he's right about the problem, he's wrong about the plan to fix it. And I hope it fails.
July 23, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink