jimswift
19th January 2011, 08:41 AM
Real Health Reform: A Way Forward
By David McKalip, M.D.
Published 01/19/11
ObamaCare looms large over our land even as American are calling and acting for its repeal. Bureaucrats are working furiously to write the tens of thousands of pages of rules to implement the government-corporate takeover of medicine. Insurance executives, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and special interests like the AARP have dollar sign dreams as Americans will be forced into the system they will control. Thankfully, the bill is clearly on the ropes and is on track for repeal over several years. But the damage it causes in the mean time will be great and we must be ready to undo the damage by offering good alternatives to solve the real problems plaguing health care now: high costs and poor access for the poor. This series will offer real health reform solutions to all those naysayers in the collectivist and corporate movement who like to say: 'You have no real alternative so you must submit to our authority'. Luckily, there is a better way to reform health care -- it's called freedom.
Part 1: Ending the Addiction to Health Insurance.
America has a health Care problem -- costs are too high and access needs to improve for the poor. Like any problem, the first step toward a solution is to recognize the cause and admit it exists. In this case the problem at the core of most problems with our health care system is the American addiction to health insurance for our daily medical needs.
Health insurance is certainly an important and valuable product to have. No one would want to own any large asset without a policy that guards against its sudden damage or loss -- like a car, house, or business. Since nothing is more valuable than our lives, it is natural to want health insurance to protect it. But what is insurance and are we using it the way it is designed? Ideally, any insurance policy would be a product that would indemnify -- or protect -- the holder from a sudden, rare and catastrophic loss. It would be used rarely in life (how many times in your life do you expect to make an auto or homeowner's claim?). It would cover 100% of the cost above a certain ceiling -- often called a deductible.
Modern health insurance does not resemble any sort of rational way to use insurance. Americans use their health insurance far too much - when it is entirely unnecessary to do so. People with insurance (about 88% of America) will use it when they go for a routine checkup, have a cold, need a flu shot, have a twisted ankle, a blood pressure evaluation, a visit with a specialist for evaluation of a problem like prostate enlargement, menopause or a back ache. Why? The short answer is that people have been conditioned for decades to believe that without health insurance, there is no health care. But nothing could be further from the truth.
It is time for American's to kick the insurance habit and start seeking their routine annual medical care using funds they save for that specific purpose -- with a health savings account or the like. Why is it that people will pay $120 for a new set of brake pads, but won't pay $120 for a visit to their doctor to adjust their blood pressure? Why $5,000 to replace an air conditioner, but not $5,000 for a spine surgeon to remove a ruptured disk and the facility that hosts the procedure? When did it make sense to pay $13,000 annually for insurance premiums every year and get only $1-2,000 of annual benefit payments to cover care? The answer is, that it makes NO sense and the insurance company is making a killing. If you depend on the insurance companies and government to pay for your health care, they will set the rules -- not you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW92MP-yyOo&feature=player_embedded
continued:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1296
By David McKalip, M.D.
Published 01/19/11
ObamaCare looms large over our land even as American are calling and acting for its repeal. Bureaucrats are working furiously to write the tens of thousands of pages of rules to implement the government-corporate takeover of medicine. Insurance executives, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and special interests like the AARP have dollar sign dreams as Americans will be forced into the system they will control. Thankfully, the bill is clearly on the ropes and is on track for repeal over several years. But the damage it causes in the mean time will be great and we must be ready to undo the damage by offering good alternatives to solve the real problems plaguing health care now: high costs and poor access for the poor. This series will offer real health reform solutions to all those naysayers in the collectivist and corporate movement who like to say: 'You have no real alternative so you must submit to our authority'. Luckily, there is a better way to reform health care -- it's called freedom.
Part 1: Ending the Addiction to Health Insurance.
America has a health Care problem -- costs are too high and access needs to improve for the poor. Like any problem, the first step toward a solution is to recognize the cause and admit it exists. In this case the problem at the core of most problems with our health care system is the American addiction to health insurance for our daily medical needs.
Health insurance is certainly an important and valuable product to have. No one would want to own any large asset without a policy that guards against its sudden damage or loss -- like a car, house, or business. Since nothing is more valuable than our lives, it is natural to want health insurance to protect it. But what is insurance and are we using it the way it is designed? Ideally, any insurance policy would be a product that would indemnify -- or protect -- the holder from a sudden, rare and catastrophic loss. It would be used rarely in life (how many times in your life do you expect to make an auto or homeowner's claim?). It would cover 100% of the cost above a certain ceiling -- often called a deductible.
Modern health insurance does not resemble any sort of rational way to use insurance. Americans use their health insurance far too much - when it is entirely unnecessary to do so. People with insurance (about 88% of America) will use it when they go for a routine checkup, have a cold, need a flu shot, have a twisted ankle, a blood pressure evaluation, a visit with a specialist for evaluation of a problem like prostate enlargement, menopause or a back ache. Why? The short answer is that people have been conditioned for decades to believe that without health insurance, there is no health care. But nothing could be further from the truth.
It is time for American's to kick the insurance habit and start seeking their routine annual medical care using funds they save for that specific purpose -- with a health savings account or the like. Why is it that people will pay $120 for a new set of brake pads, but won't pay $120 for a visit to their doctor to adjust their blood pressure? Why $5,000 to replace an air conditioner, but not $5,000 for a spine surgeon to remove a ruptured disk and the facility that hosts the procedure? When did it make sense to pay $13,000 annually for insurance premiums every year and get only $1-2,000 of annual benefit payments to cover care? The answer is, that it makes NO sense and the insurance company is making a killing. If you depend on the insurance companies and government to pay for your health care, they will set the rules -- not you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW92MP-yyOo&feature=player_embedded
continued:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1296