HEALTHCARE COSTS & SOLUTIONS; GOVERNMENT & HEALTH INSURANCE ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Following is yet another letter I have written to my Senators and Representative:
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Dear

All of the health care bills that are being considered create multiple bureaucracies, greatly increase reporting requirements, and generally increase administrative costs to all providers. Congress is basically trying to reduce what providers can charge while, at every level, greatly increasing their operational costs.

I read a 1998 CBO study that named the three largest contributors to increasing health care cost as: technology, administrative costs, and malpractice insurance. We don’t want to stifle new technologies, which leaves tort reform, and reducing reporting and administrative burdens as the best ways to reduce costs.

A large part of the admin burden comes from health care being tied to employers. As health care costs increase, companies begin changing plans every year, trying to find the cheapest one. As every plan has different negotiated terms with providers; doctors, hospitals and other providers have to hire multiple employees (and pay their benefits) to figure out and process all the claims.

Another part of the admin burden is created by the maze of government programs. Providers need to hire trained personnel to interpret and process the myriad rules, regulations and reporting requirements.

I know that our legislators and government officials live in a bureaucratic sea, which they probably don’t think about, any more than fish in the ocean think about the water in which they swim. However, those in private industry don’t have a bevy of clerks, paid for by the taxpayers, to interpret, manage and create all the paperwork mandated for us. They have to do it themselves, at a great loss of productive time, or they have to pay someone to do it.

The massive increase in new programs, rules and regulations, layered over old programs will do to the Health Care System what “No Child Left Behind” did to education. That is, it will so burden the health care providers that many will retire early, or otherwise leave the profession, just as many teachers have. We don’t want our doctors and teachers spending all their time grappling with red tape; we want them doctoring and teaching.


Please do everything you can to block "one size fits all" mandates for health insurance that will nullify free market solutions that are working.

Consider Direct Primary Care Practices, such as Qliance in Seattle, that operate outside of health insurance(See link below.) Imagine; they can offer complete primary care much cheaper than the cost of health insurance plans alone; no co-pays, no maximums etc., just a flat, all inclusive, monthly fee, often less than $80.00!

They can do this because they do not have the administrative costs of dealing with health insurance plans.

Their patients can use health savings accounts for such things as an MRI or a colonoscopy. They can also buy a catastrophic health policy, and they will still pay less than those with employer subsidized complete health insurance.

Patients who are uninsured can, at least, get basic care at a reasonable rate.

For these reasons, Direct Primary Care Practices are spreading across the country. In South Carolina we have Access Health Care.

Mandates that require all health insurance plans to cover everything, and that require everyone to have health insurance will put these practices out of business.

Please do not create laws that destroy these solutions. Please preserve HSAs and the ability to purchase catastrophic care only. Please preserve choice.

Please consider the fact that the government and health insurance providers themselves are a huge part of the problem. Please look to Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and California for tort reform solutions. Please, if there are billions of dollars of fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid, solve those problems first. This is the true responsibility of government.

As for the 10 to 17 million American citizens who are uninsured for lack of money, we can figure out how to give them excellent care without spending trillions. $170 billion would give each one $10,000.

Not sinking the economy with hundreds of new taxes and fees, not to mention unsustainable debt, would allow the creation of millions of new jobs as the recession ends. This is the best solution for the uninsured.

Please do not create a huge, government takeover, boondoggle plan that will destroy our country while it rewards special interests at the expense of the elderly, minorities and disadvantaged it purports to help.

*http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/12/22/seattle-docs-via-qliance-aim-to-revolutionize-health-care-by-freezing-out-insurance


On behalf of your Constituents: