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Mr. Obama
is the one who has it wrong about health care
June 21, 2009
Mr Obama claims that almost everyone, but the President, has it wrong about healthcare. The facts speak otherwise. A simple review will demonstrate that this idea of the President's is even worse than Hillary-care.
To reduce costs, the President intends to reduce payments to doctors for services by 20%. This effect may cause even more doctors to refuse treating government paid healthcare patients, it will mean for those who do remain, less time with a patient, reduced staff especially supportive medical staff and stressful conditions for the doctors which makes it possible for more mistakes in diagnosing illnesses.
Let us understand the role of a doctor. Almost 90% of what a doctor does a good grandmother can do. The critical 10% is why a doctor spends all the money on education and training. It is critically important for doctors to see patients in order to hear an odd comment or see a symptom that will cause the doctor to put on the detective's hat and find the cause.
Another critical role in health care are the folks who do your tests. There are two main types of lab technicians. The first has a college education plus an internship to learn how to do the many kinds of tests. Lately lab workers are being hired off the street to do the testing at just above minimum wages. These are good people and can perform some of the testing with no problem, but just like doctors, do you want to lose the pros in the lab who do the heavy lifting? Those who pay the bills prefer the lower wages of the off-street people. All this for the bottom line. The bean counters do this while ignoring the real expense, inefficient operations in the lab and in-house politics because of turf wars.
The same reductions are scheduled for hospitals, also. Patients are now leaving hospitals a day or two earlier than they should. This all-too-often causes complications. So in essence this is fine with our President?
And in the realm of reducing payments to the medical field, which has no validity to costs, is Mr. Obama reducing his salary by 20% as well as his appointed administrators?
Now a review of how our government works. With very few exceptions, for every dollar needed for a project in the private sector, government will need $4 to $9 to do the same job. How can we afford such over-spending with bureaucratic noodling? Health care is too expensive now. Bring the government in, cost of healthcare will rise to at least twice to ten times the cost of today.
Few will receive true and needed health care in a timely manner under this scenario, ask those in the United Kingdom, or check what is happening in Canada. Real results are being ignored. Our government wishes to make a failed health care system in other countries even worse in our own.
What do we do? The answer is a Health Care Savings Account. How does this work? Simply and efficiently. An employee and employer join together to form a savings account to pay for health care. Each contributes, pre-tax. All payments for medical services come out of this savings account. A credit card can be used to manage payments. On top of this account is a catastrophic medical health care insurance policy. It may kick in at anything over $1,000 a year. Everything else comes out of the Health Care Saving account. Anything left over at the end of the year is rolled over to the next year and may eventually be part of a retirement plan. Do the children need braces? Save for it in the Health Care Savings Account.
For those who cannot afford to pay into this system the government will finance the saving account as if it were an employer. All other aspects will be the same. To the medical field, government assistance is not demonstrated. All are equals. The bureaucracy and the wasted funding is greatly reduced. The medical system stays private sector and becomes efficient.
Health care costs will begin to decline because the patient will shop for services and the competitive edge of the free market will be in play. Yes, it would be wise that any medical group participating should be sanctioned as meeting the appropriate requirements, an association, not government should be the governing body.
Others may be too uncomfortable to say it, but socialistic ideas in a free country does not make the country free. Is Mr. Obama's administration a one term failure similar to Mr. Carter's? It may be, with similar examples of ego and the failure to demonstrate common-sense that has been lacking so far in this administration. The Great Hope of this administration by the many people of this country may only be a dream from which we will soon awaken.
Copyright 2009 Wall of News