1. 45 million uninsured
2. Millions more "just a pink slip away" from being uninsured
3. Health Care costs rising uncontrollably
Ironically, the panel was organized by Drug Company representatives. The discussion weaved from tort reform, reducing administrative costs by implementing a medical records card, baby boomers retiring and government paying for over 75 million Americans' health insurance, socialized medicine, doctors salaries, catastrophic insurance in combination of medical savings accounts, price lists for medicine, VA health care, and many other topics.
But as I listened (and voiced my anti-socialist opposition), I realized that this is the very problem with government: this is really how government works. People who really don't know the big picture sit down at desks in Washington and start writing a bill to "fix" a problem. By the time all of the issues of the problem are resolved, thousands of pages of rules and regulations are created. These regulations become so large and complex, the efficiency of the system resembles that of a Russian factory farm in the 1980's.
After talking for an hour, I discovered the solution. Fix government and chances are you may actually fix the health care crisis.
People need to pay for their own insurance and it should be the law that they pay for it.
If people can't afford Cadillac insurance, they shouldn't be able to receive Cadillac health care. Businesses offering Cadillac insurance, and not making money need to offer Hyundai insurance.
Drugs mask the symptoms of a problem they don't fix the problem.
American drug companies are becoming an agent for socialized medicine, in which we are subsidizing bad behavior and other nations in which they "negotiate" significantly lower prices for drugs. There are two ways to address this issue. First, place taxes on American drugs sold overseas and tariffs on drugs coming into the country in order to reverse the subsidizing of socialized medicine countries.
Specialty doctor salaries are out of control.
If doctors are being paid $1 million or more per year to perform their services, and there is a monopoly to control the number of specialists, we need to break the monopoly and increase the number of doctors or increase competition by making doctors advertise their prices for the services they provide.
Cash payers with only catastrophic insurance (such as me) shouldn't subsidize anybody.
The idea that someone who pays cash immediately for a service provided, and being punished for it by paying 50% more, is ridiculous. More people should be paying their own bills, not less. Too many people are going to the doctor and too many people are taking drugs that they wouldn't otherwise take if they had to pay for them themselves. In order to get this under control, the majority of costs must be paid for by the user of the services.
The government pays the health care for too many Americans, not too few.
As unpopular as this is, health care is not a right. We can delude ourselves that America is the richest country in the world. We are not. America is bankrupt! Any government subsidy should only be provided to those who are physically incapable of producing any product or providing any service. If a check is written, that check should have to be repaid by work off that debt by working at the minimum wage rate, limited to 60 hours per week. I am quite sure this would reduce the number of participants in the government relief programs. We have a need for a lot of day care providers, nursing assistants, parks that need to be cleaned and government building bathrooms that need to be scrubbed.
Social Security and Medicare is a Ponzi scheme, not an investment account.
It is a pay as you go system. There is no trust fund or lock box. These are a lie by politicians who want to get elected. People retiring and living off the government for 24 years is a system impossible to maintain. It is a shame politicians have not been truthful with the American people. Robert Madoff is more credible than our politicians.
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