II. Tax fast food, prepared, processed and junk foods that all tend to be cheaper than healthy foods. Take that money and put it toward health care. It will also make healthy food cheaper (by comparison).
III. Make gym memberships, visits to true preventitive providers such as chiropractors and nutritionists tax deductible. Healthier people go to the doctor less.
IV. Make health insurance merit based, such as auto. In that I'm self-employed, I have to buy my own insurance. Private plans are exempt from ERISA rules; which means that people with unhealthy habits, the over weight, with pre-existing conditions and those who go to the doctor more, pay more. All health insurance should be the same.
V.Mal practice reform. Not tort reform.Currently 80% of all medical costs are diagnostic, not because the doctor doesn't know what's wrong, but so he can document he did his diligence incase you sue. Insurance companies charge outrages fees to doctors not because of law suits, but because they lost their shirts in the market. I know an OB that has been in practice over 20 years, never been sued and by law has to carry a $1 million policy, which he pays $100,000 a year for. If you capped malpactice payouts today, I doubt rates would go down. Insurance companies are there to make money first, provide a service second.
Put the burden (and financially) on the plantiff. If you loose, you pay for court costs, investigations and the doctors lost wages. Cases can only be filed after an obudsmen finds that it is true neglegence, not just a mistake.
I heard on the radio this morning an economist saying that the main reason health care doesn't behave in the market like other businesses is that the end user is not the consumer. You are not the one paying the bill for or making the decisions on your health, someone else is.
ReplyDeleteYou are dead on about malpractice rates and capping awards. What drives malpractice is not the cost of judgments, it's the cost of defending these suits. As you likely know, experts are not cheap. When an insurer is faced with spending a minimum of 100k per lawsuit to defend a Doctor, they settle and this is what drives up the costs.
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