Accessible and Affordable Health Care

Simple Changes

First, reform medical litigation limiting medical damages and penalties;

Second, offer malpractice insurance to doctors substantially below current rates. Supported, but not entirely backed by the government, sort of like flood insurance.

My cardiologist says most of his colleagues in various specialties pay 20 to 30 percent of their revenue stream for mal-practice insurance today and it constantly goes up for the same coverage. And that’s for coverage not likely to cover the average malpractice settlement or court award.

Third, redirect one hundred billion dollars of the stimulus money to increasing hospitals and clinics all around the country where medical care services are thin. Double the training funds for doctors, nurses, and other medical technologists and give them a break on repayment if they go to these new hospitals and clinics.

Increase supply everywhere; make medical care plentiful. It will markedly increase accessibility and reduce costs.

So instead of thousands of pages of legislation and multiple new untested government programs and several new and expanded bureaucracies trying to fix hundreds of things a few malcontents think are wrong, actually fix a couple of the most important things first.

Make a list of other lesser important things and after we are sure the first two things are evaluated, adjusted and fixed, consider the next couple things on the list to see if they are still relevant and necessary.

Also, not everyone needs health insurance.

Illegal immigrants aren’t eligible for taxpayer supported health insurance. If they want it, they can buy it, here or in their home country. They all ready have easy access to emergency medical care.

Eighty five percent of citizens have health insurance they happy with.

Some people have medical savings accounts or other savings and investments they can use for medical expenses; they don’t want any government interference in their access to medical care.

60 million or more have been paying for Medicare, some for nearly five decades. They are at or near retirement. It’s way too late to change their plans now.

About 15 million young people have much higher priority needs for their money than health insurance, they don’t want it. They may be sorry they don’t have it, but that should be their problem, not ours.

About 15 million people wish someone would pay for health insurance for them. You know, give it to them free, so they can use their meager paychecks, or entitlements sold on the black market at deep discounts, for personal indulgences they find more valuable than health care, until they are sick and dying and whining about not being able to get health care.

Basically, there is no one unable to get health care. There’s no one that wants health insurance that doesn’t have it, if they can afford to pay for it.

We can barely afford health insurance for ourselves after actually paying our excessive taxes when due; unlike many members of Congress and the President Cabinet. I certainly can’t afford to buy any kind of health care or insurance for any one else.

No new or increased national health programs are needed. A public health insurance plan is unnecessary.

Make a couple targeted adjustments to improve access and increase supply to reduce costs. It shouldn’t take a thousand pages of legislation; it shouldn’t even take a hundred. If the House and Senate can’t improve health care with less than twenty five pages, they should be replaced.