An Easy Fix to Health Care Reform

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Real Health Care Reform

 

 Those who know me will tell you I am a superb financial officer and administrator.  In 1987,  while attending graduate school I did extensive  research which was the basis of my  thesis which focused on providing  health care for all Americans without disrupting the present system: Health care reform is simple however politicians do not want a simple solution.
 
 Facts:

 Health care is outrageous because doctors have to incur the following expenses: Cost of education, overhead (office, equipment, etc), staff, medical malpractice insurance, etc.

 

My research showed that aside from the expense of school the second  greatest  expense was the medical malpractice insurance expense.  This  quite frankly despite what doctors want to tell you is a direct result of  physicians  failing to police themselves in an appropriate and responsible manner. Physicians attend weekly Morbidity and Mortal reviews.  It is a  confessional before their pairs where they can admit to some of the most  heinous of irresponsible behavior with the doors closed and no one will  rat on them or take action against them!  So when an incompetent physician accidentally kills your loved one or fails to see the start of an  infection  etc. no one reports them for their conduct or pulls their  license to practice!  My heart doesn't bleed when physicians "complain"  about their  medical malpractice premiums and blame the lawyers for  constantly being sued. The fact is that if incompetent physicians had  their licenses removed  the rate of law suits would decline thus pay out by insurance companies would decrease and their premiums would drop!  This is a fact and I have the research to prove it! My health care reform would start as follows:

 

 1.    Physicians voluntarily call for the suspension of licenses of  physicians who are incompetent thus reducing their malpractice premiums.

 2.     A panel would be assembled made up of the top doctors and medical professors to review cases of malpractice in an open forum judging the actions of their pairs and based on those recommendations that physician would be suspended and not allowed to practice in all 50 states!

 3.    Any and all qualified persons who have been accepted to medical school  and have graduated and passed their boards be allowed to chose the following career paths:

              a. private practice

              b. public service

 

 4.    Those who chose the public service career path would work out of medical school earning approximately $35K a year and over the next ten  years would receive $15K pay raises plus cost of living  based on  assignment.  In  exchange for ten years of public service there would be no over head expenses, no medical malpractice insurance expenses and lastly their student  loans would be forgiven.  

 

These physicians would work in clinics, hospitals, physicians offices, military bases and tribal reservations based  on demographic needs, specialization supervision (i.e. residency requirements) etc. When these physicians are not treating those without insurance they would  see other patients and their time would be billed back to the hospital, doctors office etc. which in turn would be billed to that person's private  carrier and those fees recouped by the federal government and paid back to the hospitals for allowing use of facilities or would remain with the  Federal Government. At the end of ten years  should the physician wish to  stay in the public sector they would work a  normal 45 hour week instead  of the schedule of those in private practice.  They would earn a capped  salary of $190K to $250K salary based on level of  specialization.  In  addition, they would be allowed to sign a code of ethics  which would allow them to practice and maintain their own malpractice  insurance  outside their assigned facilities and see/treat patients privately after  fulfilling their 45 hours a week at their assigned offices.

 

Those who wish to avoid public service would continue practicing medicine  as  always however their medical malpractice rates would be reduced  significantly based on the efforts to remove physicians who are deemed  unfit  to practice medicine. My program statistics showed that when more than 1000 physicians and 2000  students were surveyed if they would participate in such a program overwhelmingly more that 88.72% stated emphatically yes citing that  in  order for them to make close to $200k a year they had to bill on average close to $3 million dollars citing that insurance companies only pay a  capped reimbursement for procedures performed despite what was billed for  the services. For example a bone marrow transplant may cost $350K however  the hospital and physician may only be reimbursed collectively 10 to 15%

 

5.     Companies with more than 50 employees would be required to provide  health  insurance to all employees. Companies would be given greater tax  breaks for doing so.  Those companies which failed to provide said benefits  would be forced to pay a  5% to 10% tax on their gross receipts before any deductions for expenses would be allowed.

 

6.     Legislation needs to be passed concerning the costs of drugs in the U.S. Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S charge the nation for the costs of R&D and clinical trials etc to get their drug to market with the U.S.  citizens bearing 100% of the costs yet the very same drugs are sold overseas for pennies.  I know I lived in Brazil, Iraq, Kuwait and have traveled to the U.K.,  Finland and other countries around the world and have included their drug pricing into my research.

 

7.     Lastly the delicate issue of legislation in my opinion must be addressed as to whether health insurance providers be allowed to operate  for profit or not.  Most of you are my parents friends age and will remember that up until the 90(s) these companies were not allowed to make a profit but operate on a breakeven plus reserves basis.  This would again "lower"  the  price of service on the private sector side.  My research shows that such a program fully funded would cost an estimated  $86 to $108 billion a year which is literally a fraction of the U.S. bill  they are trying to pass presently, it is about 23% of the budget for  Homeland Security ( I know I managed about a $100 Billion for Homeland Security under the Bush administration with a total annual budget of more than $472B).  This program could put 300, 000 physicians into public  service at an average salary of $168K, plus an additional $30 to $54B a  year for the actual costs  of medications, overhead and diagnostics. This recommended program is affordable to our country compared to what is  being debated and would work.  I know because my plan was reviewed by more than six professors and ten physicians and all concurred that this was a  great opportunity to reform health care. I graduated with a 3.9 out of  4.0.

 
 Aside from step 6 and 7 my plan as is would fix the problem in our country  immediately.  Adding legislation through steps 6 and 7 would create a  world class health care reform policy which would be the envy of the  world.   I  sincerely  urge all of you  to pass this email to everyone you  know and help share my research and thoughts with your congressmen and  senators and have them contact me to discuss this plan.  I can be reached at this website.