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Universal Healthcare Is a Fraud

By chris rice  Posted by Chris Rice (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   23 comments
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First, Sen. Hillary Clinton doesn't give a damn about the uninsured any more than Sen. John McCain cared about undocumented workers when he wrote the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. Politicians care about their big fat cat campaign contributors, not us. Big Pharmaceuticals see huge profits in the uninsured & the under insured if government will guarantee their profits on your dime. Hospitals have been losing billions of dollars every year treating the uninsured & the undocumented in hospital emergency rooms across the nation. And that is how legislation gets written in this country, the sad part though is it won't work. Here's why:

The health care crisis seems to be on everyone's mind today. Politicians have unique solutions to sell you with the objective being your vote. Getting your vote is, unfortunately, not what good health care is really about.

The medical care crisis is real and it is multi-faceted. While we mainly focus on cost and the uninsured, the real concern should be about availability. The number of doctors over age 55 is significant. When those doctors retire, the question will not be about cost of medical care but instead it will be about the rationing of medical care. The shortage of practicing nurses is already well known but the shortage of doctors is only now becoming a focus of discussion.

In order to revitalize our health care system and provide the solid foundation necessary for access to health care for all, we must drastically overhaul how health care is thought of today.

The individual is the starting point for good health care. We cannot continue to rely on drugs or surgery to reverse years of poor health habits and poor diets. The true solution to our health care crisis is personal responsibility. This will take years to be effective but it is the only true long term solution.

In the shorter run, our health care system must emphasize wellness and not illness. At present, the emergency room is the physician of choice for many Americans at great cost to all. It is important to allow nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurses greater autonomy in providing medical care. Not all medical issues require a doctor. Additionally, the AMA and research facilities should be encouraged to develop standard medical examinations and treatment for each risk group or age, especially the aged. This improves early diagnosis and allows for treatment at a much lower cost than remediation later.

Medical systems must be streamlined by providing funds that will be used to renovate health facilities and find creative means of providing health care. Let the private enterprise system encourage solutions. Government imposed pricing with Medicare and Medicaid, regulatory approval processes, and litigation risks all work together to deny you the very thing that our political leaders tell you they are working for. Additionally, insurance companies frequently base their reimbursements on Medicare and Medicaid, while at the same time requiring additional paperwork to justify payments. More realistic rate structures and simplified billing administration are needed to encourage the free market system to work as they are intended to work.

Tort Reform is needed as well. We must limit non-economic damages for awards, and give the state licensing board greater latitude to punish negligence. Concurrently, physicians and health care providers have to be willing to police their own ranks.

To alleviate the shortage of health care professionals, we need to encourage careers in health care through a nationwide tuition assistance program, loans, and tax incentives. It is absurd that our tax code fails to reward education. If you want to fight medical care shortages, encourage the career (and all careers for that matter) by providing for the deductibility from income of tuition payments. To provide for care to the poor, non-profit health care facilities will partially fill the gap but I would also recommend that the tax code be modified to allow health care practitioners to deduct the market value of their charity care to the poor as a tax deduction on their tax returns.

Prescription drug approval processes and research are needed to significantly reduce the costs of developing new drugs. Making villains out of drug companies to get votes is counterproductive.

Finally, revision of HIPPA and the Stark Act to reduce unnecessary and cumbersome regulations which increase costs but do not improve health care should be undertaken immediately. Once again, the Congress passed well intentioned bills with no understanding of the impact on the industry.

Great health care emphasizes wellness, personal responsibility, and a society that is willing to lead the effort of encouraging health care careers. Bandages will not fix our health care problems today but redefining how health care is provided will. We need to break health care in order to fix it."-Col. Frank Ryan, USMC (ret.)

But the worst part is:

 

None  of  the  presidential  candidates, Republican or Democrats  health  care  systems  will  solve  America's  health  care  crisis.  Because  1.  they  all  rely  on  private  insurance  companies.  In  most  businesses  the  more  goods  you  sell  the  more  profits  you  make,  but  not  with  insurance.  Insurance  is  the  exact  opposite.  2.  America  is  in  a  disease  epidemic  caused  in  part  by  this  nations  Farm  bill  of  the  last  50  years  that  has  been  signed  &  passed  by  both  Republican  &  Democratic  administrations.  Americas  Farm  bill  promotes/contributes  to:  obesity,  diabetes,  some  cancers,  heart-attacks  &  strokes.  First  we  should  stop  giving  corporate  welfare  to  farmers  whos  crops  are  killing  us.  Some  foods  should  also  be  required  to  carry  a  warning  label  &  be  taxed  like  tobacco  because  they  kill  more  people  than  cigarettes  do.  Second,  if  we  are  going  to  give  such  price  supports  they  should  go  to  farmers  of  healthy  or  organic  foods.  Which  would  make  the  price  of  healthy  foods  affordable  like  unhealthy  foods  are  today.  And  lastly,  disease  is  not  just  treatable  it  is  preventable.  And  for  every  dollar  spent  on  prevention  eight  are  saved  in  the  state/federal  budget.  These  simple  things  would  not  just  save  thousands  of  lives  but  also  billions  of  dollars.  (According  to:  American  Heart  Assoc./  American  Stroke  Assoc./).

 I  did  not  know  this  when  I  started  writing  this  but   type  2  diabetes,  heart-attacks,  40%  of  all  cancers  &  strokes  can  be  prevented!  Not  only  can  we  prevent  this  nations  deadliest  killers  but  we  actually  save  eight  dollars  for  every  dollar  spent  on  prevention.    Then  our  ERs  will  not  be  over-crowded,   our  doctors  over-worked  &  our  hospitals  under-staffed.  And  yet  not  one  Presidential  candidate  addresses  Americas  real  healthcare  problem.  America  ranks  42nd  in  life  expectancy  worldwide,  America  is  in  a  disease  epidemic  that  is  not  only  ignored  by  the  Republican  &  Democratic  politicians  but  was  created  by  the  nations  Farm  bill  of  the  last  50  years.  We  currently  are  giving  billions  of  dollars  every  year  in  corporate  welfare,  subsidies,  etc.  to  multi-national  corporations  &  corporate  farmers  that  produce  unhealthy  foods.

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Whether you call it the world financial structure, the U.S. culture of waste, or the ability of the common man to make a decent living, the system is broken. It's time for the common man to go on strike. Join or support the March on Washingon (more...)
 
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