CONTENT OF LATEST LETTER TO CONGRESS

Per economics Professor Martin Feldstein(1) there are three problems with the American health-care system:

1. Health-care costs are rising much faster than our incomes.
2. More than 15 percent of the population has neither private nor public insurance.
3. The high cost of health care can lead to personal bankruptcy, even for families that do have health insurance.

None of the bills that Congress is attempting to reconcile solve these problems. Their mandates will force Private Insurance to raise their rates or go bankrupt. The various taxes to pay for them will finish bankrupting the rest of us. In the rush to pass “something”, little research has been done into current free market solutions that are working.

Consider the following:

1. Direct Primary Care Practices, such as Qliance in Seattle(2), which operate outside of health insurance. 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, as little as $49.00! 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 very reasonable rate.

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

2. Integrated Care models such as The Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation that have replaced the fee for service model. They achieve better care at lower cost.

3. Innovative insurance plans, such as those of the State of California, The University of California, and Stanford. These plans offer a choice of several plans, but only pay for the cheapest.

4. Pre-tax Health Savings Accounts, which many people with serious illnesses use to manage their disease.

The bills being considered would put all of these practices out of business. This would surely anger the millions who currently depend on them.

Congress has also not considered the following:

1. The high administrative costs of health care insurance and of government regulations are part of the problem. My doctors tell me are these are about 40% of their bottom line. All the current bills would double and quadruple those costs.

2. Medical liability is the second greatest cause of increased costs. What about tort reform? Look to Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and California for tort reform solutions. They just capped punitive damages.

3. 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.

4. Every government dollar spent on health care requires $1.25 in tax dollars. Therefore the public option is the most expensive.

5. Healthcare insurance tied to employers is not portable, and creates many problems. Give individuals the same $5000 tax break as employers and let them own their own policy.

6. Health Insurance Companies have only a 3 to 5 percent profit margin(3). Without the access to the large pools that nationwide competition would provide, they cannot cover everything for everyone. If you mandate it, they will go bankrupt. The states can work together to standardize requirements.

7. Innovative ideas such as Professor Feldstein’s elegant solution, which would solve all three problems; without involving the Government in the delivery or rationing of healthcare, without increasing the National Debt, or requiring taxes to be raised.(1)

8. If there are 20 million core uninsured, we could give each of them $10,000 per year for only $200 billion. We don’t need to spend trillions!

The only reason to pass Health Reform legislation based on the models Congress is considering is to intentionally further our march toward total government control of every aspect of our lives and total destruction of the dollar and our economy. Why would you do that?

We are demanding you vote “No” to the boondoggle bill that is being created, then do your homework and create legislation that will actually solve the problems.

Remember, the American people are doing their homework, and they are watching you. There are millions of people who are becoming politically active for the first time. We are joining together and forming independent networks whose main purposes are: fiscal responsibility; defense of the Constitution; and the defeat of any members of Congress who take us further down this insane path.

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072701905.html
2. http://www.qliance.com/
3. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52745

HEALTH CARE COST SOLUTIONS

HEALTH CARE COST SOLUTIONS

Following is a list of solutions to the Health Care System that have been proposed by different Conservatives, and health care professionals. They have been mentioned by so many, that I do not remember where I first heard them. Note that none of these solutions involve a government single payer system. Here is what I have so far:

1.Expand HSA’s and allow them to be portable, and to be saved over long periods of time.

2.Tort Reform!!!!*

3.Allow Doctors to charge much less for routine care when they do not have to file for insurance payments. Then Health Insurance will be needed only for catastrophic care. (Example: Qliance in Seattle)**

4.Make Insurance Companies compete nationwide (ie. give option to buy individual or group insurance from companies nationwide).


5.Disconnect health insurance from jobs. Allow people to shop for their own best deal. Allow young, healthy people to buy individual insurance at low rates; then keep it over time no matter who they work for, as they do now with life insurance.

6.If people choose to accept an Employer Group Plan and then leave their job, make sure they have the option to keep their insurance with the plan’s provider, at an individual rate, with no increases for “preconditions”.


7.Eliminate voluntarily uninsured, temporarily uninsured, and illegal aliens from the uninsured statistic (Leaves about 10 to 17 million). Then we can look at ways to help this core group.***


8.Give doctors and Hospitals tax incentives to maintain free clinics for poor.


9.Give back the charitable contributions tax deduction for donations to these clinics.

10.Demand that any “Public Plan” mandated by Congress will apply to them as well.


11.On a gradual scale, increase the age of eligibility for Medicare for anyone who is 60 or less similarly to what has been done for Social Security.

12.Allow Medicare recipients the option of carrying only catastrophic health insurance and allow Doctors to charge them less for the routine care, as above.

13.Vigorously investigate and prosecute fraud.

14.Allow self insurers ie. individuals, medium and small businesses, to group together in pools in order to get lower group rates.

15.Give persons who purchase individual health insurance a tax deduction similar to that given to employers who offer group health insurance to their employees.

*The cost of malpractice insurance, plus the practice of “defensive medicine” is a huge cause of the increased cost.

**I believe another large part of the increasing cost of health care is the huge administrative cost of health insurance to Doctors and Hospitals. I remember when no-one had health insurance and the vast majority of the population could afford to go to the doctor, and to go to the hospital to have a baby, or an appendix or etc. removed.

***I had said that it is Un-American to require people who don't want it, to carry health insurance. However, many have pointed out to me that we require licensed drivers to carry insurance. I'm thinking about this.