How To Fix Health Care

July 21st, 2009

Obama keeps saying that Health Care in this Country is broken and needs to be completely thrown out and rebuild, and it seems that he thinks Government is the only answer. But what he doesn’t tell us is that we have the best Health Care system in the world. Which doesn’t surprise me, He acts like He hates everything about this Country. Everytime He gets in front of another Country He is all apologies .

People come from all over the world to be treated here for things their Countries and Doctors can not treat. Let’s look at a short list of advantages of the US Health Care System.

Life expectancy at birth in the US increased from 68.2 years in 1950 to 77.2 years in 2001

Since 1975 the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has been awarded to more Americans than to researchers in all other Countries combined.

According to data collected through 1993, 15 of the 19 marketed biotech drugs used for nondiagnstic purposes were the product of US companies alone.

As of 2002 eight of the world’s ten top-selling drugs were produced by companies headquartered in the US.

Following is a short list of advancements the US pioneered or had a major part in developing.

1.    Magnetic resonance imaging
2.   Computed tomography
3.    Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors
4.    Statins
5.   Coronary artery bypass graft surgery
6.   Proton pump inhibitors
7.    H2-receptor antagonists
8.    Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors
9.   Cataract extraction and lens implants
10.  Hip replacement
11.  Knee replacement
12.  Complete mapping of the human genome
13.  Non-Invasive Laser Robotic Surgery
14.  Anti-Retroviral treatment for AIDS

These things do not sound like the traits of a broken health care system. We continue to lead the world in advancements in health care. We develop drugs and the world get the benefit of that research. It's expensive because it is the best.

We keep hearing that 40 million Americans are with out health insurance. What we are not told is that no one, let me repeat this no one in this country is with out access to Health Care. Any one can go to any hospital and be treated with out being turned away because of an inability to pay. This is federal law.

I have worked on volunteer rescue squads in Illinois and Virginia. No one was ever charged for our services or turned away.

A year ago last April I fell off a 12 foot ladder and broke both my ankles. I had no health insurance; being self employed in a start up business I was not able to afford it.

An Ambulance was dispatched with a crew of three; they in turn transferred me to Brook Army Medical Center. The reason I was taken to Brook is because it was the closest and best equipped to treat my injuries. I was not taken to the cheapest hospital I was taken to the best equipped. No one at this point asked if I had insurance or money.

As I was wheeled into the Trauma Center, I was pushed through a crowd of people. There were:

1.    2 Doctors
2.    At lease one X-ray tech
3.    Several nurses
4.    Several people I could not identify
5.    One Chaplin

In all I think there were about 10 people tending to me. You would have thought that the President of the United States was just wheeled in. In approximately 10 minutes my complete medical condition was effectively and quickly evaluated. Including x-rays blood work, and IV butterflies in both arms.

After the initial care I received months of follow up care at Brook weekly x-rays, casts, crutches, walking boots and any thing else needed. At no time was I asked for a medical card, or payment. I have received bills and I will pay them at some time, but the point is anyone in this country whether a citizen or not receives the best care available.

Now let’s look at the so called uninsured, or the 40 to 50 million who don’t have health insurance.

The exact amount is hard to determine but for the purpose of this article we will use 47 million. This is an average of the figures we hear in the news.

Who are these uninsured, that Obama wants to wreak havoc on the best system in the world?

Fourteen million are already eligible for government insurance, Medicaid, but have not signed up. (Pre-existing conditions do not exclude someone from joining Medicaid.) Of those 14 million that have not signed up, because they do not want to pay the small monthly premium that Medicare charges. As a result, many who are eligible for Medicaid wait until they need care before they register. They are effectively insured at all times even when they are not formally enrolled in the program.

What about the uninsured who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid? Most are not in dire financial straits. After all, 27 million of the uninsured have personal incomes of more than $50,000.

Now there is a group of people who are borderline poor but not eligible for Medicaid, but the group is relatively small and many (if not most) of those people are illegal immigrants. According to the US transportation department there are 200 million illegal boarder crossings a year and around 15 to 20 million illegal persons living in the US at any one time. As far as I am concerned let them go back to their own countries for Health Care. Unfortunately, government surveys never ask respondents if they are legally in the United States. We need to make it federal law, that law enforcement officials, must check a person’s citizenship status. If you remove from the conversation those who are able to be covered by Medicaid, nearly 70 percent of the remaining uninsured lack insurance for less than four months. Many of those are temporarily uninsured because they are switching jobs and waiting for human resources departments to process their paperwork. In addition, two-thirds of the uninsured are between 18 and 34; these people, on average, have few health problems and are uninsured by choice. In today’s climate we have a growing number of persons that have lost their jobs and no longer have Health insurance. COBRA is very expensive and I think insurance companies gouge people to get them off the roles. The truly uninsured are, thus, largely young people who can afford insurance but who make the decision to temporarily go without it as they move between jobs. This tends to be for very short periods of time. This does not mean we don’t have to tweak our Health Care System, I don’t think we need to kill the best system in the world, just to tweak it.

What should be done?

Here is my Health Care fix.

1.   Shut down all illegal border crossings. These 200 million illegal border crossings and the 15 to 20 million illegal aliens living in this country now are a great strain on existing medical costs. They take out of but do not add to any of the systems they use. All illegal aliens found in our Health Care System should be given minimal emergency care then put in an ambulance or medical air transport and shipped back to their country of origin and place into their Health Care System. Any costs of these people should be immediately taken out of any aid to be sent to that country.

2.    Expand Medicaid to include the small amount of people who can not afford care but are not eligible now. We call them the working poor. Good people who don’t get any help but are expected to pay more in taxes.

3.    Make insurance portable from job to job and state to state, get rid of individual group rates. The entire Country becomes a group rate.

4.    Get the lawyers out of Health Care Doctors are spending as much as $200,000.00 a year for malpractice insurance, and there are billions of dollars in unneeded tests because Doctors are afraid of lawsuits. In any law suite make the loosing party pay all fees for the winner. Disbar any attorney that brings a frivolous law suite. Make the Good Samaritan law apply to Doctors. More than half of jury awards in medical liability cases exceed $1 million and the average award is $4.7 million. The number of mega-awards has skyrocketed, especially in states with no limits on non-economic damages. In the past several years, juries have awarded verdicts of $80, $90, even $100 million. You get costs from now on and that is it. Loss of income is a cost.

5.    Increase Medicaid payments to Doctors to encourage them to take it. Doctors are either not taking Medicaid or will not take new paitents becouse they can not get paid. A Doctor only makes $1300.00 to do a hip replacement. Payment should reflect reasonable fees at the current market rate. Payment should be made within 48 hours of request. Yearly accounting can be done to catch overcharges and cheats you go to jail and loose your license.

6.    Appoint a board of Doctors and Hospital administrator and private people to oversee what Medicaid payments should reflect, not a government politician.

7.    Shut down all special Health Care for federal workers and politicians. Let them live under the same care as we do.

This would be a good start in tweaking the Health Care System. Now how do we pay for the costs of these programs? That is an easy one;

1.    Stop all aid payments to other countries, if we can’t afford Health Care we can not afford a bunch of freeloaders, that don’t give us the time of day;

2.    Shut down the UN and kick them out of the country. They are an Anti American organization anyway. The time has come to realize that the UN has out lived their usefulness.

3.    Stop all special perks to The House and The Senate, and cut there salaries in half. No cars, planes, trips overseas, no retirement, kill it all. The thinking is that if we don’t keep giving them these things we will not attract good people to run for office. Please, wake up, we are not getting good people now.

4.    Put every government department on base line budgeting. Instead of automatic increases let them go through a complete audit every year and let them justify every penny needed for the New Year.

5.    Shut down every projectt, and I mean evryone, that is not needed for the direct survival of this country for the next 10 years.

6.    Pass a law, that no bill can be voted on until it is posted in complete form on the internet for at least 30 days, the only exception would be military action needed to protect our shores or American citizens abroad. This may not be necessary because I think the President in an emergency can do this now, for 30 days before he goes to congress. Let Congress start planning ahead, I have to.

7.    Pass a law that no government official can vote themselves a raise. All raises for The House and The Senate must be approved by the people of this Country every 4 years. We will decide If you deserve a raise

This not only will support any Health Care we need but would balance the budget in less than one year, and give us a surplus.


And that's what I think!

Phil Haikey