Congress has done a very poor job in being transparent to citizen voters. The various Health Care bills floating in the House and Senate are another example of back-room deals and midnight bargains that only a select few in Congress are privy to, leaving the public in total darkness. The current health bills are to gargantuan to download to home desktops. The U.S. government broadcasts to the world that the U.S. A. is a democracy; one would think true hard copies of all proposed legislative Bills would be available for public view at the State and local offices of each U.S. Senators and Representatives - no such thing in the U.S., where Congress is a closed private club.
Most concerned citizens have serious reservations regarding the sustainability of any bill of 1000+ page proportion that leads to the creation of yet another Washington agency. The current health care bills, will create more bureaucracy and will eat up billions in administrative costs, yielding few health care benefits to the general public. Pie-in-the-sky legislation generally falls on it's face, and 100's of millions of dollars are lost to outright fraud.
President Obama should take control of his runaway Democratic dominated Congress and present a concise( 50 pages or less ), readable, health care package in Bill form, for the reconvening ( after August recess ) Congress to consider. A new draft, U.S. Health Care Reform package, should include the following components:
1) The pool of beneficiaries needs to be defined and limited: U.S. Citizens who have continuously resident within the U.S. for 7 consecutive years. The reasons for this limitation relate to personal health histories. The treatment of imported conditions and diseases is extremely costly and will financially sink any program of wide public benefit.
There is a distinction between pre-existing conditions and imported conditions and diseases.
2) There needs to be individual and family caps on services: suggest - $100,000. over 3 years for individuals; $200,000. over 3 years for a family of four. A carte blanche program is not sustainable.
3) Co-ops and HMO's need to be exempt from anti-trust laws, to form bargaining groups, that can contract for prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment supplies, doctors and other health related services.
4) Medical licenses granted by one-state need to be recognized by other states. There needs to be a national registry of licensed doctors and health professionals who are in good standing. With the addition 40-50 million uninsured, there will be a shortage of doctors to address the health care needs of these new beneficiaries. Further, there must be a limitation on medical malpractice: a national standard needs to be defined: suggest - carelessness or gross-negligence with a cap on pain and suffering calculated at three ( 3 ) times actual damages + costs; and attorneys fees should be limited to not more than 15% of any award. A national process would be patterned after that established in California.
5) A National Health Care Trust should be established. Congress and the Administration should be prohibited from "dipping" into the NHCT. The NHCT Account held by Fed, fully deductible contributions, by anyone or entity, would be made through any FDIC insured member bank. There are going to be millions who, for one reason or another, or during a specific time period (e.g., while unemployed ), will be unable to pay any premium ( distinguish between premium and co-pay). The NHCT would be used, exclusively, to reimburse health services providers for services provided.
6) A "basic" coverage plan needs to be specifically defined and initial premium costs need to be established: suggest - $96.40 a month for individual coverage; $250.00 a month for family of four - all premiums fully deductible / $20.00 co-pay each visit/$30.00 co-pay for specialists. This is where existing HMO's can be most helpful. HMO’s can provide realistic costs and define what "basic" coverage can be realistically be provided within such costs parameters.
The current 1000+ pages bills or any massive bill needs to be scrapped ! President Obama, send Congress back to the drawing board. Produce a realistic bill that is readable and read by each and every member of Congress, and can be understood by the general public; and that specifically defines " what you pay, and what you get ". The current U.S. health distribution system needs to be tweeked not replaced.
