It’s not health insurance; stupid…

It’s healthCARE! And we need to do a few fundamental things as consumers of healthcare to change it for the better:

• Learn how the AMA controls the number of potential doctors by artificially limiting student internships. It is shocking the control they have to keep the market inflated. Do they try to make sure doctors provide quality care as well? You bet, but there are things they do that hinder the market place. We need to demand more access for those that want to become a doctor.

• The AMA limits what nurses can do for patients. Nurses make a fraction of what doctors make, and let me tell you being married to one, they know as much, if not more than doctors. If they were not limited to the care they could provide, the price of services would be reduced (bad for doctor’s pay). We need to demand more access to care by nurses and alternative medical professionals.

• Trial lawyers like John Edwards, are like vultures circling over doctor’s heads, waiting for any mistake, or questionable diagnosis, to pounce and file a lawsuit, whether or not there was negligence. We need to decide as consumers whether or not we want to allow this to continue. The threat of lawsuits is hindering care, encouraging useless CYA (cover your anatomy) tests, and increasing the cost of care by astronomical proportions. We must put limits on this insanity.

• We need to reject health insurance for basic care. We should create a “healthcare pool” for anyone that is willing to pay for basic care like doctor’s visits and blood tests, limiting the cost people in this pool would pay, if something catastrophic happened like cancer or a heart attack. Anyone in this pool would have “insurance” against losing their home, business, or life savings. A small monthly payment for catastrophic care would be required to get into this pool, but it would guarantee a protection against their assets. Doctors would be protected against lawsuits if they provided care to anyone in this pool. With protection against the individuals in this pool from losing their lifetime savings and assets, people would more likely be willing to join. Creating a huge pool of consumers demanding market place reforms, and doctors willing to provide competitive care. This is just a rough plan but it is mine and one I will continue to develop.

These suggestions directly attack the “status quo” of healthcare; insurance companies, doctors, and patient “security” will be impacted, but if we want a better, less expensive system, we have to look at everything that is wrong with the current system.

I ask; do you really want politicians, the government, and insurance companies deciding the care you receive and pay for? Or do you want to decide your care? The choice is simple; the road will be hard. But think about the founders of this nation, and the road they had to choose. Was that an easy choice? Was it the right one? Just a thought…