My Solution To The High Cost of Health Care

The reason President Obama and the Democrats can’t get the health care issue right is because their worldview is out of whack. Their thinking is based to two flawed premises:
1 No system that can be created that will ensure that everyone will get full comprehensive health care coverage regardless of one’s ability to pay. This is a pipe dream. No matter what health program is implemented, somebody somewhere will fall through the cracks and not get the health care that they actually need.
2. Whether you like it or not, no matter how you slice it and dice it, health services are a consumer product just as any other type of goods and services that you purchase. Given that, if you want to lower the cost of health care and make it accessible to as many people as possible, it needs to be done according to the same economic principles that are used to lower the price of any other consumer product.

Once you understand those two givens and that we are in a health care cost crisis as opposed to a health care crisis (there is a difference), then the solutions are quite simple. Here is my plan:

1 Implement a sound tort reform plan. Make laws that will prevent frivolous mal-practice lawsuits against Doctors. Also, if a case does go to trial, have it where the looser pays the court costs. This will reduce the amount of mal-practice insurance a Doctor will need to buy, and thus reduce the Doctor’s overhead. This will also prevent the Doctors from over prescribing tests and treatments in order to prevent lawsuits in the first place.
2 Implement a uniform pricing policy regardless of who the payer is. First, allow the heath care providers to set the cost for their services. Then, what ever price the health care provider sets, the cost for that service should be the same whether the service is being paid for directly by the consumer, private insurance, or medicare/medicaid. If the health care providers want to charge an administrative surcharge to cover their cost for processing the non-cash paying costumers, then I would be okay with that as long as it is within reason. Let’s say 5% of the cost, but not to exceed $100 (Those figures can be negotiated, but you get the idea).
3 Implement laws that will encourage the insurance companies to write policies that will cover only the high dollar and catastrophic cases. This will lower the insurance premiums. In the long run, it is a waste of resources for insurance companies to cover routine Doctor visits for minor illnesses and injuries. Those expenses should be paid for out of pocket by the consumer.
4 Implement laws that will encourage and enable the insurance companies to write national policies. This will give the consumer the option of having some mobility. As of now, the medical policies are written per each individual state. The problem with that is, if one wants to move to another state, one has to change policies.
5 Revise the tax code and allow individuals to have a tax break on their health care costs. Allow everyone to pay up to $5,000 per year for their insurance premiums or regular out of pocket medical expenses with non-taxable income. Business are not taxed on the money they spend on insurance premiums, so I say give the individual the same benefit that the businesses have.
6 Revise the tax code so it will encourage Medical Savings Account tax shelters. The more money the consumers have to spend, the more they are impowered to shop around and choose their health care providers.

These are just a few ideas that I have thought of, I am sure there is more. Will any of those ideas that I just outlined create the perfect health care system if they are fully implemented? I don’t think so. However, I will submit to you that if they are fully implemented, our health system will be far better than it is now. When it is all said and done at the end of the day, any solution to our health care problems should be free-market based and should incite competition between the health care providers. Competition is what will drive the cost of health care down, not government intervention. And the lower the cost of health care, the more accessible it will become to those who need it.