UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE for all U.S. CITIZENS while DECREASING costs?

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By Ben Marble, M.D. (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s)

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For OpEdNews: Ben Marble, M.D. - Writer

To me the idea of providing universal health care for all U.S. citizens is a good thing in general. It would be even better if we can do that and decrease costs at the same time. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well it is probably is (because The Duopoly controls the system) but if we were to discuss hypothetical ideas that would work in an ideal system then first we should discuss the reason(s) why health care costs are spiraling out of control? Personally I believe it is primarily due to two special interest groups: 1-the insurance industry and 2-lawyers. So why are they to blame? Well we have allowed a catch 22 to be created in that bad lawyers are allowed to file bad lawsuits ad infinitum. This forces doctors to practice 'CYA MEDICINE' where a doctor will order all sorts of testing that truly isn't needed in order to 'cover your ass' to theoretically prevent a feared lawsuit. So basically, in effect, this means LAWYERS ARE PRACTICING MEDICINE! For example, if a 45 year old male comes to the ER complaining of chest pain the odds of him leaving without at least a $2000 bill from the hospital are very slim even if it just turns out that he actually had costochondritis and really needed NO TESTING at all. So that is just one example of where a pt. could/should get a bill for about $200 but instead winds up with over a $2000 bill. The 'cya medicine', in turn, drives up the costs of health insurance thereby leaving more and more people uninsured. The insurance companies hire people to read through pt charts looking for excuses to pay less (or pay nothing) on pt claims. This, in turn, requires doctors and nurses to spend way too much time doing paperwork instead of taking care of patients thus increasing the chances of pt's getting worse care. Also the uninsured people tend to use emergency rooms as their 'primary md' thus adding more and more to the cascade of reasons as to why health care costs are insane! Of course, all the politicians want to talk about is how they want to cut doctors salaries

So that leaves us to ponder ways to 'fix the problem'. One thing that is rarely mentioned is the fact that we are expecting politicians (aka LAWYERS) to fix the problem. So LAWYERS are the problem and we are expecting them to fix that same problem that makes lawyers billions if not trillions of dollars). So we are basically letting the fox watch the henhouse and that is also completely insane because they are not going to kill the goose that laid their golden lawsuit egg.

With these things in mind I would propose a very simple plan designed to removed the lawyers and the insurance companies from the HEALTH CARE equation:

1-have the GOVERNMENT provide FREE health coverage (including dental) for every U.S. citizen....Sure most doctors loathe the idea (as do the insurance companies and the lawyers) but when compared with the current broken system vs. what the dummicraps are currently proposing I believe most physicians would prefer this approach and here is why...

2-implementing #1 would take lawyers out of the business of practicing medicine because you can't sue the government. This one act alone would save billions of dollars!

3-This would effectively put the health insurance industry out of business but who really cares since they make more than enough $ ripping off people over wind/water hurricane policies!

4-end the idiotic 'war on drugs' and instead legalize marijuana and use the saved money + resulting 'pot tax' to help pay for #1

5-Doctors would have to agree to take a PAY CUT (say 35%?) to help keep costs down so say if the average yearly salary for OB-Gyn's is $400,000/year then under the governments program they would instead make $260,000, if the average salary for Family Practice doctors is $$200,000/yr they would then make $130,000/yr PAID BY THE US GOVT

6-Most doctors are in a 38% tax bracket, so we could take 100% of physician's tax money and use that to help pay for the universal care for all citizens

7-Most lawyers are also in a 38% tax bracket so also use 100% of the taxes paid by lawyers to help pay for it.

8-if the sum of #2,4,5,6,7 isn't sufficient to cover the costs of the program then do whatever it takes to cover the difference (increase taxes on the rich,etc???_)

9-those citizens who want to opt for private insurance/private health care would still be allowed to do so but they would be the rare exception rather than the rule

Of course, these ideas make good sense and we all know Congress has no sense so it's all probably a moot point.
cya
Ben

I first started playing with computers in 1977 after being placed in the 'gifted program' at school due to scoring a 154 on my IQ test(my mom told me to never take another IQ test again and I haven't...so good thinking mom!). I am a part-time (more...)

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