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Originally Posted by l2ridehd
1. Tort reform. Eliminate the large settlements, force arbitration, and set a maximum allowable amount that a doctor could be sued. Eliminate bad doctors, and create subsidized insurance pools. When 40% of someones income goes to insurance, cost of medical care will never be contained.
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People want $$-Limits on medical malpractice claims until they are harmed. When the GP made house calls, claims were rare, as the family patients and the GP had a relationship which provided understanding. Once the house calls ended and was replaced with the multi-exam-room approach where the patient became a "file folder with a number" and expected to endure waiting-room-itis and made to feel unimportant, the expectation of care quality jumped in response, as the "family doctor and the family" relationship deteriorated into nothingness. Physicians for the most part have forgotten that medical services is a "personal services" business, and without the "personal" factor, perfection becomes the expected occupational standard. Put "personal" back into the service equation, and claims will drop like a grand piano falling from a rooftop.
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2. Insurance payment reform. When a $20,000 bill gets settled for $2000 the system has already failed. First because the bill is so high and second because the payment is so low. Attack the cost side with number 1, attack the income side here and provide reasonable reimbursement for services provided.
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When high bills are settled for whatever, the next person billed finds their bill a little higher to make it up. That's the same in every business.
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3. Education reform. Help bright young people pay for college and medical school with the provision that they spend X number of years as a GP. Most doctors who graduate today will not become general practitioners. Not enough money to be made to pay for their education. So incentives to get doctors in these roles is needed. More nurse practitioners as well. Need to pay them more so they get to this role. Without addressing this issue we will have rationing of health care weather you can afford it or not.
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That exists already. The military has been doing that forever, and so has the US Public Health Service. If making the most money possible is the only incentive, then the Hippocratic Oath needs to be replaced with the preamble to TARP. And medical schools are businesses, too. They charge whatever the market will bear, and as long as student applications outnumber seats, it's a seller's market.
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4. Drug cost reform. It costs to much to develop a drug today. To much testing, the maintaining of a validated environment, meeting FDA rules, time from development to on the shelf, and also part of tort reform.
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I remember Thalidomide and a host of other drugs whose performance did not match the plan. When one takes shortcuts with the scientific process (especially in the evaluation phase), the risks can become deadly.
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5. 50 million without insurance does need to be resolved. However if you are here "illegal", we need a different solution. It is not up to the American tax payer to take care of someone who broke our laws. If you are here legally and do not have insurance then we do need to create some sort of basic care and make it available at an affordable price to those in need. Clinics, pro bono work, generic drugs, some way to care for those in need.
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But is this a
federal problem? The fed cannot manage local use programs. There are many ways to resolve this without more inefficient federal programs which only reward politicians and appointees.
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6. Keep the government out of the solution except for these 5 things. A government run system will fail worse then the current system. I have not heard a single politician even mention tort reform and to me that is the number one problem.
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If the federal government is involved 1%, they control things 100% - every businessman who has ever dealt with federal regulation knows this painfully well.