The Nefarious Agenda

The ObamaCare cat is out of the bag. Most folks get it. Our Nice Young Man president wants to expand government power. Period. Reform of health care or health insurance or whatever is just an excuse.

Current “health excuse” proposals are too complicated. We must require simplicity so everyone can understand what is being done to us. Even Congress People. This needs to happen far ahead of any voting in Washington.

We need simplicity of both content and process.

Content simplicity. What are the exact issues to be fixed?

1. Pre-existing conditions. These are code words for real consumer problems with insurance companies. They include inability to get affordable coverage and cancellation if you get something bad. But this is easily fixed. Simply allow the sale of “guaranteed insurability” riders. I have such riders on my term life insurance and my long-term care insurance. What could be simpler?

2. Equal medical care. What does this really mean?  Must healthy young people pay in?  If they are working, they are already paying into Medicare. Millions of people are eligible for public programs—example, Medicaid—but have not signed up.  We don’t need to change anything for them, do we?  If people are here illegally, do we want to pay for them, too?

Illegals are an interesting case. They may exceed 10 million. As written, current bills would indeed cover them. Ironically, these same bills would gut Medicare Advantage plans, which help mostly low-income seniors. How many? 10 million are on Medicare Advantage. So will we screw Grandma to take care of people who should not be here? Yep, that’s the deal.

3. Lower cost. Mandates, electronic medical records and a government-owned insurance company are major ideas. Mandates always drive up costs and reduce benefits. Medical record systems only tinker at the margin. So-called “public option” would eventually result in a government-only behemoth. If you like going to the DMV, you will love a massive National Health System.

The best way to lower cost would be elimination of the Medical Malpractice Industry. Here is a great job for the government.

Malpractice claims would be handled by certified medical arbitration. Awards would be limited and standardized. No more trial lawyers. Providers could lose their licenses for really bad problems. This would keep them on their toes. I think Kaiser Permanente already does this.

Process simplicity.

A. Agree on the content before doing anything.

B. Examine current pilot projects. Massachusetts is mandating coverage. How is that going? Are the costs working out? What should be different?

C. Slowly test new pilot projects. Measure the results and improve the project as necessary. Over time we can see what works and what does not. Then we shall be ready to tell Congress what health care improvements we want.

The all-or-nothing approach of ObamaCare exposes his nefarious agenda: much Bigger Government at any cost. This is a legacy we can do without.

Comments

[Bob]

Regarding providers losing licenses for serious problems: We already have that, and it's not working very well. State licensing boards can, and occasionally do, revoke licenses for serious problems. But most state licensing boards operate as much to protect physicians as to protect the public because the boards are mostly made up by physician members. The result is that most of the one to two percent of physicians who are responsible for over half of all malpractice payments have no licensure action against them according to National Practitioner Data Bank data. The system isn't working very well.