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Regulation

It is a shame that changing our health care system hasn’t happened yet. Insurance companies lobby to prevent changes the same as pharmaceutical companies lobby to keep things as they are. In the meantime both industries are getting rich and doing little to help all Americans get good health care. In 2000 before the election Marcia Angell MD, Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, was certain needed changes would come about.
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Sadly, not only was our health care system not fixed it was made worse in the following years.

I am for our government telling insurance companies to get out of the health care business. I am for tighter regulations on the pharmaceutical companies because right now, with no regulation, the price of medicine has no where to go but up.

There is no doubt that we have to fix the system. It is a crying shame the want of money replaced what a smart democracy should have done at least a decade ago.
trippin's profile
posted by trippin
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As was stated we'll probably never get rid of health insurance companies perhaps we could create a second player. The Fed. gov. One might be able to opt into the gov. scheme and pay a surcharge of perhaps 2% of their gross income or not pay the tax and remain privately insured. The gov. would pay a base rate for GP visits ($50?). If a private doctor charged more then the individual would pay the difference. I think we'd find quite a few doctors that would bulk bill, that is, charge the patient nothing and just bill the gov. For a knee replacement the gov. would pay X dollars. A public hospital would have a waiting list for sure but one could always go to a private hospital and get er done, paying the excess over what the gov. would pay. Life threatening maladies would have no waiting lists though one may not get their choice of doctor. Again, if willing to pay the excess to have ones' own doctor then the private hospital is there.

On the pharmaceutical side, if the gov. bought in bulk generic drugs to treat diabetes, hypertension and other long term diseases it would actually save money on people getting ill. The costs of the drugs would be minimal for those needing them. Given a choice would you pay $84 for the name brand or $6 for the generic? They both do the same thing.

There is vast scope for improvement in the US health care system.
JoyBoy55's profile
posted by JoyBoy55
9 months ago
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