Most problems with most plans, especially government plans, is that they don't set standards and omit definitions. That's because our elected officials are career politicians and want to be reelected. We will all be immensely better off when term limits are imposed and they can actually focus on work for us.
These are the primary pieces of my healthcare policy:
- We have to move back to not-for-profit health insurance with tight regulation of what's covered and how insurance companies are compensated.
- The primary care physician will be central to the healthcare system with extra compensation, responsibilities and defined staff positions.
- There will be a roster of universal coverage for everyone in the country that needs it paid through federal agencies that will cover 80% to 100% of various treatments.
- supplemental insurance which will be defined and named supplemental by the federal plan and not altered or marketed by insurance companies will cover up to 80% of a variety of medical treatments that are less used by the general populace.
- Orphan/rare illness may be covered 100% and monitored by scientific and medical agencies in an effort to learn more about causes and treatments.
- The the Constitution intended for "the general welfare" to include healthcare for all the citizenry.
- ALL resources of the federal government BELONG to the American people and the government, as agent and servant of The People, merely serves to facilitate the use of those resources, including the budget to provide The American People with the best lives they can achieve.
- The size of the system which is why redesigning the system by elevating the primary care physician as the healthcare team leader with additional responsibilities than simply healthcare.
Many healthcare professionals are guilty of over-scheduling and provide less and less actual healthcare. Many healthcare groups market their services as providing teams of professionals when they are actually top-heavy with administrative staff who structure patient visits like an assembly line.
It would be the major function of the primary care physician to replace the insurance company's monitoring of a patient's care. They would provide:
- Annual wellness exams and any necessary accompanying lab tests.
- routine appointments for season allergies, cold, etc. and referrals to specialists that would not be second-guessed by insurance companies.
- Monitoring of on-going treatment of serious illnesses and conditions being treated by specialists, like cancer, glaucoma, cataracts, ulcers, etc.
- Consultations with any number of healthcare professionals who are treating a patient.
- Facilitation of exchange of healthcare documents and lab reports among the various treating healthcare team.
- Statistical reporting of various medical information in order to maintain a high level of pertinent medical research in various areas.
- Patient assistance with unsatisfactory care from any healthcare professionals including referrals to appropriate legal services.
In order to carry out these additional, often non-medical responsibilities, primary care physicians would need a variety of technically trained staff.
Compensation for each of these additional responsibilities and for additional staff would be the responsibility of the federal government. Where such things may have once been considered waste, they will become the funding to a well-oiled system carried out by well-compensated professionals who are able to focus on the specifics of their positions in order to provide the best healthcare for each individual patient.
- Outdated beliefs:
'It would be too expensive' I heard those words repeated too often growing up.
Numbers with $$ signs in front of them can be intimidating but they're just numbers. What the the purpose of money? It's a vehicle of exchange in trade. Rather than trade 5 sheep and 20 chickens for a milk cow, money was invented so people didn't have to transport goods for exchange around with them. It was also invented by men who had nothing to trade but wanted a cut of the action - the financial "industry"; keep your eye on them; they are not to be trusted.
My feeling about money, while often still influenced by the never enough, cup half empty point of view, has evolved to feeling that what money gets you is the most important thing. I certainly think that in this outrageously wealthy country, everybody can and should get, not just good, but excellent healthcare.
- The Ultra Wealthy - whether they be millionaires or billionaires, we, the ordinary working people keep protecting their privilege.
Here's what I think about wealth. I had ancestors who held hundreds of acres in a particular area. None of us in the related families have any wealth now. Why?
Wealth is acquired in several ways: inherited and not lost but grown; by finding something that everybody wants and is willing to pay well for and not losing that gain; by cheating, deception, theft, conning and even killing. Those are the most common ways individuals become wealthy. I, personally, assume the last is the most common. And, I'm not talking about the well-off, people who have always made more money they I have because what they do is valued more than what I do. The ebb and flow of that is fairly steady. I'm talking about the extremely wealthy whose wealthy is difficult for most of us to fully appreciate or understand.
I, personally, feel that it's time that we see that, on this tiny planet, our species cannot survive much longer if we continue to allow this imbalance to continue. Many of the original colonists were people who were starving, had no possibility of rising above their circumstances and came here to this, so they believed, empty place in hopes of making a decent life for themselves and their families. The founding fathers whose lives were much more than that but who were not the ultra wealthy like today argued a set of principles which would allow the possibility of almost anyone to achieve a good life.
What I would propose about this problem will appear in a future post.
