5 Proposals To Overhaul Medical Care in America

While perusing the comments on Roger L Simon's blog, I came across Mark Malone's ideas. They made so much sense I had to reproduce them with some additions of my own. Mine will be in italics.

1) Break the monopoly. Allow competing health care organizations. If doctors can’t lose their licenses, they are free to provide solutions they know work, but that the AMA won’t allow.

2) Tort reform. Most of the tort lawyers are parasites. They add no value, except to keep some docs honest, but their role should be far more limited. It should not be a gigantic crap shoot. Limit damages to actual loss, and only with gross negligence. Loser pays. (One could also “kill all the lawyers”. .45 caliber tort reform.)

3) Make health costs 100% tax-free. Better, eliminate the 16th amendment (the income tax system). Then establish a national sales tax system (the Fair Tax). It is easy to do. Simply pass a Constitutional amendment banning income taxes. Congress will then find another tax system (unless they want no money for the government). This will have the added benefit of making manufacturing far more competitive in this country. Additionally, allow portability between states and permit ALL of the health insurance organizations to provide insurance regardless of state lines.
The moment you do this, people go out and join co-ops and get great rates. Places like the Elks, Kiwanis, etc… were all set up originally for the purpose of allowing their members to get group health discount rates.

Then, the government screwed them by making Employer-based insurance benes tax-free. Who uses taxed monies to buy insurance, when you can get it tax-free via your employer? Problem comes when your employer offers it not, or has a small group of employees, and so, gets a lousy rate. Ending the income tax system means these co-ops will become huge, maybe even millions strong. Great rates.

4) Force the Pharmaceutical companies to sell to other countries at the same rate as they charge their biggest customers here. They will then pay more, and we’ll pay less. Watch how quickly their glorious socialized medicine systems go broke, once we are no longer subsidizing them. This is huge, because America in effect permits other countries to provide drugs at a vastly reduced rate, while we foot the bill.

5) Fix SS/Medicare. Decree that those now under 50 will no longer be eligible for benefits upon disability or retirement. Move the retirement age back a couple years, since people are living far longer {I would move the agree to 65 as a minimum for eligibility for Medicare}. Prosecute all the fraudulent disability claims (like faked bi-polar). Tack on a sales tax to pay for it. This will eventually end the Ponzi scheme, while honoring the obligations. We have to stop adding people to the roles.

These are all sensible ideas, but the GOP leadership will never ever EVER adopt them. Because they are part of the problem. They have been captured by the "inside the beltway" mentality and have become Dem Lite. With the above changes, we wouldn't be shattering the system to "fix it". Additionally, I would ensure that Congress and federal employees are included within that frame work enumerated above, because by excluding them, we create a 2 tiered system that allows the "elite" better care than the proles.