A healthcare plan from: MindYourOwnDamnBusinessPolitics.com.
I have a different and longer lasting approach to healthcare reform; the MindYourOwnDamnBusinessPolitics.com five point healthcare plan.
1. Take all taxes out of all healthcare related economic activity. Everything. No exceptions. For us, as a people, to tax health care in any way, at a time when people are struggling to pay for healthcare is unconscionable. Repugnant.
All individual healthcare expenses need to be tax deductible. All business costs involved with healthcare should be tax free, from doctor’s salaries, to the wages the janitors earn at the drug company’s office buildings. Everything including construction of new plants and facilities, labor expenses, the costs of research, packaging materials for medicine, and costs for FDA approval, should be tax free.
Support this with a Congressional committee charged with Search and Destroy responsibilities for getting taxes out of everything healthcare.
Many people will argue that the government needs these revenues. Tough. If we can spend $1.0 trillion or more on bad healthcare legislation we can certainly cut the costs that are keeping people from their doctors.
2. Focus government on what government does well. Standards.
President Obama is correct with regard to the need for a better IT infrastructure between medical providers and insurance companies. This includes the codes insurers use for doctors to communicate a patient’s claims.
Information technology standards creation is very difficult and time consuming work. If such a body has the force of government to set time frames and compliance, the standards body will be effective. Government does have a vital role.
3. Fix the FDA approval process. This process costs immense time and money. We need to speed up the FDA’s approval process and reduce the costs of approval. Start growing the FDA now to handle the work load forecast for ten years from now; get those recruiters out onto college campuses.
4. Adjust insurance regulations. Note that I did not write remove. The force of government is needed to keep insurers in line.
Require insurers to cover all expenses for FDA approved treatments. No fine print. End of story. Insurers can save money by offering discounts for use of efficient providers (best cost to cure ratio, so high cure rates are valuable).
Further, require insurance contracts based on time frames, i.e., year by year or multi-year so that the company can not end your coverage just because you are sick. Further, handle previous conditions through a lottery where patients are picked up by insurers in proportion to their customer base.
5. Change American attitudes so people understand that the best healthcare is very expensive. Re-build our culture of achievement to increase productivity to help pay for the costs. President Obama should use his wonderful rhetorical skills on a major push in the creation of an accomplishment culture where education and accomplishment are cool. This will lead to a vibrant economy that can pay for the increased costs that improved medicine will bring.
This five point healtcare plan will cut costs, improve care, increase coverage, and increase freedom of choice. Government retains limited but very important roles functioning within its core competencies, and the private sector will be spurred to increased competitiveness.
That is a prescription for America that will cure America; at least American healthcare.
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Note: The folks over at PajamasTV taped, and tonight will post a very good forum on healthcare, ‘Free Market Response to Government Run Healthcare’ put on by the Tea Party Patriots. Take a look.
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Excellent points, well-written. Thank you for your perspective as always.