Poltential Solution to the Healthcare Bill

[KingArthur]

I have seen other members accuse other members of not offering solutions, but rather finding fault. Ironically, this is Obama's position as well.

Well, I have a potential solution to the Health Care Bill to save money and accomplish a smilar result, without spending Trillions and creating a huge government entity that will cause more problems than it will solve.

1. Cap the ammount that can be given in medical malpractice suits (Yes, I realize that one of the larger lobby groups in D.C. are attorney's that that do these cases. But, Obama said, he wouldn't listen to lobbyists, right?)

2. Get rid of all the illegal aliens from the United States. Yes, I said it, as the majority by-and-large have been enjoying free medical care at the expense of hospitals who either shut down, or take the cost the illegal aliens caused them to expend and inflate your medical bills to cover it and the ammount charged to your insurance companies that drive up premiums. In some cases, hospitals have shut down because of the "free medical" provided to illegal aliens.

3. Allow interstate competition between health care providers, driving down costs to the consumer.

4. We already have medicare and medcaid in this country. Put that as part of the temporary benefit package to the unemployed while the actively seek employment.

5. If a person is employed full time, it is my understanding that the employer and the employee both contirbute to Social Security. Why not have a similar system whereby the employer chooses a health care plan for their employees and the full time employee and the employer share the cost.

6. Allow unlimited pretax dollars to be set aside for medical expenses. This creates a hedge in the event that a really expensive proceedure comes out of the blue to protect citizens savings and investments.

If we can do these steps, no citizen of the United States will be without health care, we'll not have a bloated government entity that does more to give poor to no service yet costs us trillions and drives us closer to financial insolvency as a country and toward hyper inflation. There are common sense solutions to help people-however, I have noted by-and-large Congress are a group of rich, isolated people, who have no genuine concept how to help people-let alone how to server them as their representatives.

[norinco982lover]

Sounds good to me...but don't employers and employees already choose their own healthcare plans? Also...I'm pretty sure that my employer already allows for unlimited pre-tax dollars to be put into a flex spending account... I know we have medicare and medicaid...but the government already has some sort of blue chip something or other medical program for the unemployed ( I have a cousin on it?).

That only leaves numbers 1, 2, and 3 for a healthcare solution.

And I'm all for them.

~Norinco

[ArmyGuy45]

The Jobs thing im uncertain about. But im with you on the rest of it!

[usmamg]

Good thought process, would save bilions

[ForTehNguyen]

Texas did #1 in 2003 by amending their Constitution, we've attracted a ton of doctors since then. So many hospitals are opening in Houston. Malpractice insurance is much cheaper here as a result.

[KingArthur]

There is generally a common sense solution to most problems, and I think we've found it.

[dray]

Originally Posted by KingArthur

1. Cap the ammount that can be given in medical malpractice suits (Yes, I realize that one of the larger lobby groups in D.C. are attorney's that that do these cases. But, Obama said, he wouldn't listen to lobbyists, right?)

This needs to be tweaked a bit, I've seen Doctors & hospitals do some jacked-up sh^t to people!!

how about no limit, but no lay jury (i.e. jury has to be a mix of allied health practioners), & if the plaintiff loses their attorney is personally responsible for the defense's cost.

[KingArthur]

Originally Posted by dray

This needs to be tweaked a bit, I've seen Doctors & hospitals do some jacked-up sh^t to people!!

how about no limit, but no lay jury (i.e. jury has to be a mix of allied health practioners), & if the plaintiff loses their attorney is personally responsible for the defense's cost.

The only problem is that not capping the ammount leads to high insurance premiums paid by doctors, whcih they in turn pass on to the patient.

[theg33k]

A few I would add:

Remove the law which says insurance companies are exempt from monopoly laws.

Give more people the ability to write prescriptions. Pharmacists used to be able to do it, that'd be a great start. It's stupid to pay my drug dealer... err doctor $150 for the privilege of writing me a script I already know I need and he would likely give to me anyways even if he didn't think I really needed it just because I asked.

Forget tort reform, give me patent reform. When a doctor screws up and ruins someone's life I want them to get enough money to take care of them for life (which unfortunately is a million or two). At the same time one incident shouldn't (usually) ruin a doctor's life/career, hence insurance. Medical insurance is only like 1-2% of the cost of health care. Patents, on the other hand, we could decrease the length of patent protection which would get cheaper generics to people more quickly.

[ForTehNguyen]

tort reform is not only about damages you have to have a actual evidence to sue. That was one of the reforms Texas passed. Before you could sue without any medical basis/evidence of any wrongdoing. Here you MUST have an independent medical expert confirm any malpractice within 30 days. But tort reform alone cant fix all the problems. Tort reform makes the industry a lot less hostile. It made it a hell of a lot more fair for doctor's to defend themselves. Tort reform lowers all the defensive medicine spammage also. Amount of frivolous lawsuits has plummetted as a result.

Tort reform helps attract doctors and increase healthcare availability and quality