National Healthcare a Disaster for America

The stampede to drive America toward a national healthcare system would be a disaster. It will result in worse healthcare than we presently have, place all important personal medical decisions under the control of the federal government, deny necessary life saving care for the elderly, and worse. The costs will be enormous adding over 1 trillion dollars to our already bankrupt nation. Warnings from Europeans and Canadians not to go to a national healthcare system are being ignored.

The drive toward a national healthcare system is based upon false premises. The number of the current uninsured is grossly exaggerated and this is confirmed by credible independent sources such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and several others. The claim that the costs will be budget neutral are also false. Any logical thinking person knows that the costs to our nation will be immense, with the burden thrust upon taxpayers today and future generations. This also has been confirmed by the CBO and other independent assessments.

The dangers of the national healthcare plan are not hearsay, opinion or conjecture, but facts. It is well known that an irresponsible Congress does not even read legislation, but others have...every page, every word, of both the House and Senate plans. Those who have read it including doctors and other credible groups are sending strong alarms quoting specific inclusions in the legislation and what page they appear on.

Rather than a massive federally controlled healthcare system all we need to do is fine tune what we have. Most people are satisfied with their current healthcare (polls have shown this) and it is widely recognized that the United States has the best healthcare in the world. We need to reduce costs, provide coverage for those Americans who desire healthcare and do not have it, and unclog some of the current paperwork bureaucracy. We also need to provide more incentives for people to enter the medical profession.

Here is the suggested plan:

Put a limit on the amount of money in medical related lawsuits. Doctors currently pay exorbitant amounts of money for medical insurance, this can be significantly reduced.

Streamline and reduce paperwork for medical claims. A huge amount of cost and lack of focus on the primary medical purpose presently exists. This will also significantly reduce costs.

The cost of pharmaceutical products, drugs, have skyrocketed. This needs to be addressed, the current excuses for high cost should be questioned and action taken to reduce the high cost of drugs.

Hospital and medical center management needs to be improved significantly so that these costs can be significantly reduced. For example, there is a tendency to just pass on costs rather than run these entities as true businesses. There is a need to critically look at ALL suppliers in regard to quality and cost. An ongoing goal should be to reduce cost, and in return, reduce prices. There should also be more competiveness with these institutions in regard to pricing, quality and total value received by patients.

Place stronger control over pharmaceutical and medical / healthcare lobbies in Washington that serve to heap billions upon billions on dollars on our nations healthcare costs through special interest legislation that does not help but only hinders and compounds the problem. This influence needs to be curtailed, it is damaging America.

Where the government can help is by providing incentives toward needed medical specialties in our country by offering financial assistance to students in the various medical professions and other types of assistance.

While being very supportive to the medical profession and to those related to the healthcare industry, there also needs to be severe criminal penalties against those who commit medical fraud, or those who attempt to take advantage of our country's healthcare system. Medical fraud adds significant cost to our nations healthcare at present, this needs to be addressed.

We should use the significant cost savings of those measures mentioned above to provide medical coverage for those Americans who are poor or otherwise uninsured, who not by choice have lack insurance. Note this number is significantly less that currently claimed. There may be some who are wealthy or for other reasons desire not to have health insurance and that is their right in a free democracy.

While taking costs out of healthcare as mentioned, large businesses should be offered tax incentives for offering good healthcare plans for their employees. Small businesses should have an opportunity to group together under a Chamber of Commerce, or some other entity that would allow them the advantages of larger numbers under health insurance plans for their employees. This has shown promise in the past.

Finally, we need to elect good, responsible Senators and Congressmen in Washington and get rid of those who have helped to create or have done little to address the REAL current healthcare system problems. This is not a party or political issue, we just need to get better people in Washington representing us. If there is anything that has been revealed through our current national crisis is that we need better representation.

A federal healthcare system would be a total disaster for the United States and consolidate too much power at the federal level to the detriment of our democracy. We currently have a very good healthcare system in America, all we need to do is fine tune it. The measures above are suggested.