The Right Way to Overhaul American Health Care....

Let’s be honest and start off by acknowledging that we DO have some problems with America’s health care system – PRIMARILY, it costs too much.

By 2020 it is alleged that America's health care costs will devour fully ONE THIRD of America’s GDP!

The Democrats have offered a plan that expands coverage (and increases COSTS) while doing virtually NOTHING to bring down costs!

And to be quite honest, the GOP has offered very little in true cost containment measures.

That’s simply unacceptable.

What needs to be spoken out loud about is what the Democratic Plan only hints at...that impolitic word which is never spoken – RATIONING.

Like it or not, “free ANYTHING” has always got to be rationed by a stingy group of bottom-line book keepers. Otherwise demand will increase to the point at which that upkeeping the costs of that “free thing” will swamp and bankrupt the entity offering it. THAT immutable fact is called "the tragedy of the commons."

Once we start out by acknowledging that; the PRIMARY, if not ONLY problem with America’s health care system is its cost and that its cost-overruns are directly related to us giving away far too much “free care” to those who do not/cannot pay, the problem...AND the solution become all too clear.

You see, we already have “free, universal health care,” as our hospitals are mandated to care for whomever comes through their doors. In that way every indigent and illegal immigrant is given free, universal care WITHOUT being subjected to ANY costs or rationing at all!

That’s economically unsustainable and counterproductive, as well as morally wrong. A government has no business taking care of those who CAN’T/won’t pay by overburdening those who CAN and DO.

Moreover, we already have a PUBLIC OPTION in the U.S. in the form of Medicare and Medicaid...and they are both already insolvent at this point. BOTH those public options owe hundreds of BILLIONS that cannot possibly be paid!

So what to do?

Simply put, we MUST address the core problem – cost containment.

And that means RATIONING.

But how do we accomplish that and get from here...to over there?

Well, the simplest route would be to create the “expanded public option” the Democrats had initially advanced, while eliminating the existing two (Medicare and Medicaid), something the Democrat plan did not address.

Everyone would be given a basic bare-bones coverage through this new public option, with ONE CAVEAT – you will be restricted to a maximum of three, maybe four physician visits per year and a maximum individual health care budget of say (somewhere around) $10,000/year, with neither visits, NOR budget dollars carried over into any subsequent years.

But what happens if we need more than four visits and $10,000 in care in a single year?

Well, you’d have two options, either buy the necessary “gap insurance” from the private insurers, now able to compete across state lines with this new set-up, OR dig into your own pocket and pay for it yourself.

What about the seniors already on Medicare who’ve paid into Medicare their entire lives and been promised care?

Those already on Medicare could be “grandfathered in” and kept on the books as is.

Those who opted to switch to Medicaid in order to get even MORE “free care” - they, like ALL Medicaid recipients and all other new public option recipients would face some rather severe cutbacks and NOT be immunized from the rationing that comes along with this new “expanded public option.”

How will we pay for this massive new “entitlement”?

Finally, a GOOD question! First, it’s NOT a “new entitlement,” since we entitle all those within our borders, even those here illegally, to unlimited/unrationed FREE Health Care at our emergency rooms.

Second, we roll over BOTH the Medicare and Medicaid budgets into this new program, we strictly monitor those programs for fraud and abuse and make examples of some of the initial fraudsters caught with a series of draconian penalties to discourage further abuse. We also add into this program the estimated $150 to $200 BILLION per year that health care for illegal immigrants are already costing us and we should be able to fund that program without any problem at all and more importantly, with NO tax increases of ANY kind.

In other words, the cost containment wouldn’t come via increasing revenues, but by cutting back access and containing existing costs – that is to say, CUTTING government spending.

Moreover, we’d have eradicated the MOST crucial flaw in our current health care system – too much free care given to those who do not/cannot pay for it.

This plan would greatly boost our economy;

(1) By freeing employers from the excessive burden of providing healthcare for their workers. How much money would GM save by getting out from under their health care costs? How much would Municipalities like New York City, Chicago and L.A. save in getting out from providing their generous health care plans for their Municipal workforces? ALL that money will be there to help American Corporations expand and create new jobs and for Cities and States to save money and run more efficiently. Much of that private sector money would go into paying raises for workers, who’ve seen the bulk of that money plowed into increasing health care costs instead. In the public sector, hopefully that money would be used to pare down budget deficits, etc.

(2) It would, by addressing our system’s primary structural defect (excessive generosity, in the form of giving unlimited free health care to the indigent and illegals among us), SAVE HUGE amounts of money and those savings would start immediately, not eight years from now!

AND (3) It would provide ALL Americans with a very basic healthcare coverage, while enabling them to opt for MORE coverage by simply buying the needed “gap insurance” from the myriad private insurers and paying those premiums.

But we MUST first be honest about what the current “health care crisis” is all about.

It’s about COST.

And cost containment means RATIONING, and that rationing, in a free society, is going to impact those who will not/cannot afford the needed “gap insurance” to circumvent that rationing in a time of critical need.

Physicians would, of course, have to be barred, by penalty of law, from providing pro bono services to those on this expanded public option who’ve expended their allotment of visits and/or annual budget. That care would be needed on the open market – for those who are paying those premiums for all that “gap insurance.”

What if it’s May 6^th and an illegal immigrant is being treated for lung cancer and has already reached his allotment of visits and depleted his annual budget?

Treatment would end at that time and would have to resume, if possible, the following January, or whenever the new fiscal year would begin.

Cost containment will not come without some difficult choices and some draconian decisions like that.

We have to face facts. Right now, we are being confronted with the limits of our overly optimistic generosity, born of a once free and unfettered free market economy and we must adapt and adjust to those limitations.

We simply can’t afford to give away unlimited free health care to all those who “need it.”

Quite simply put, “If you can’t pay for it, then you probably don’t really ‘NEED’ it.” Besides that, we simply can no longer afford to give away the best, most high tech health care on the planet free to all who ask...truth is, we never could.