Like clockwork, our Great Leaders in DC are doing what they do best:
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They're making asses of themselves.
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So, it's clearly going to be up to me, Dr. Mac, to provide the answers to the health care mess. I'll even make it simple: I'm going to color-code my plan to show where an idea would be favored by a party, red for the GOP and blue for the Democrats.
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By the way, don't be concerned that I'm wasting my time -- since I don't have to worry about either party growing up and cooperating with the other, this is just a catharsis for me.
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Remember, red for GOP, blue for Democrats:
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Tort Reform: The Democrats love avoiding this obvious piece of the cost puzzle, since they're so deeply in bed with the lawyer's lobby. Avoid it all you want - doctors understandably have to practice an enormous amount of defensive medicine (layers & layers of possibly unneeded testing & diagnostics) to avoid lawsuits. It is estimated that defensive medicine costs each family of four over $2,000 a year in extra health care costs.
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Deductibility: Allow people to deduct the cost of their health care premiums as businesses do now. This is so obvious, it would fall under the "duh" category.
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Remove State Lines: Opening up health insurance competition across state lines would immediately increase competition without the need of a ridiculous "public option."
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Mandatory Coverage: Like car insurance, everyone should be required to have at least a fundamental plan. The features & benefits of the plan would be controlled by the government, and would include preventive care coverage. Subsidies would be needed for the lower income segment of the population. This would allow insurance companies to spread the risk better, because they would be required to offer...
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Guaranteed Issue Insurance. No more turning down applicants due to health history. Preventive care would also play a critical role here, since many conditions are due to poor decision-making and lack of regular preventive testing.
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Government-subsidized medical education. Physicians leave medical school with massive debt, increasing their cost of doing business from Day One. The government would reimburse all educational expenses to doctors & nurses. Due the massive increase of utilization due to mandatory coverage and guaranteed issue insurance, there will be a critical need for more providers. Tort Reform and subsidized education would eliminate many barriers for those interested in entering the field.
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Mandatory pay-back of educational subsidies. Inevitably, some will fall through the health care cracks. Therefore, doctors and nurses who receive the educational subsidies mentioned above will be required to spend their first two or three years out of college at county-run health clinics.
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Mandatory electronic records. Did you know that only 14% of the country is set up for electronic records? The problem of testing due to pure ignorance of the patient's history is as bad as that of preventive medicine. The government could either pay for the system, or provide grants or low-cost loans. Between tort reform and mandatory electronic records, you can immediately shave off 15% to 20% of the cost of health care.
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No Public Option. Obama, Peloisi, Frank, Reed and the rest have all run on Single-Payer, and now they're pretending that they are no longer interested in it. Come on, that's a flat-out lie, and anyone who is honest will admit that. The Democrats' proposed Public Option is nothing more than a back door to Single Payer. More bureaucratic control of the system will lead to the standard bureaucratic waste, fraud, bloat and sloth that plagues virtually every other bureaucratic agency. Besides, follow the steps above, and it will be irrelvant.
There you have it. Continued competition and innovation for the conservatives, a nice fat role for government to please the liberals, and choice & significant cost savings for WE THE PEOPLE. Dr. Mac's approach to fixing our health care mess that will anger both silly sides of the political spectrum.
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Based on that fact alone, I have no doubt it would work.
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