As the healthcare debate and the politics continue to be debated with the new “bill” out of the senate. People have gotten so engrossed in the horserace and the political game of this that they are forgetting the reality.
So lets have some reality lets start with this truth:
HEALTHCARE DOESN’T NEED REFORMING!
All Americans and even non Americans have access to healthcare, it’s called the emergency room. You might wait but you will get care and it is illegal for it to be not given. All of this is a red herring.
Now that doesn’t mean that the costs are not an issue, they are. That can be address in three simple ways for this to be addressed, this is my “health care plan”.
1. Remove the barriers to insurance crossing state lines.
This would make for a political battle, state pols have interests in keeping them up but it inflates costs. Drop the walls for coverage over state lines and costs will drop like a rock.
2. Tort Reform:
Again it would be resisted by big law but Tort Reform would be huge for reducing costs and retaining talented doctors. Remember a person intelligent enough to be a doctor is likely smart enough to make money a dozen different ways that involve less legal risk.
Both of those address costs but what about medical delivery? Glad you asked.
3. Sponsored “free” clinics
We Create a small system of Free clinics in the areas that need them the most. Those “free” clinics become the primary care physicians for the uninsured. The price of coverage is made to equal a “co-pay” that insurance would provide. They are staffed by New Doctors and Nurses just out of school. Doctors give 2 years and Nurses 1 as part of the licensing program. In return for those years the government either excuses or guarantees the 1 or 2 years of the college costs for those doctors and Nurses (The compensation based on the price of said education in the year 2000 adjusted for the national inflation rate) This would dramatically reduce costs by diverting care from emergency rooms and the price of said clinics would be considerably less than this bill.
There you go, no 2000 pages. I bet if we wrote the legalese out it would take under 200. You want an actual solution to reducing costs while giving people quality healthcare there you have it and not a death panel in sight!
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 