There is an obvious need for affordable health insurance. We constantly see in the news something about the health care crisis. Last night, in the state of the union address, president Bush talked briefly about the problems facing the elderly. In spite of all the talk and posturing, no one seems to have any real solutions. Is it even possible to develop a plan that would ease the burden on the system, and at the same time help the most needy? None of the plans so far presented by the health care system, or the government, offer more than a Band-Aid approach to fixing the problem. So what if anything can be done? Is there anything that will really work? Yes, in my opinion, there is a solution. It will require a complete revamping of the entire system, not just throwing money at the insurance crisis. The system in Canada is not a real answer, though in some respects it may seem so. In the current system private insurance companies and the government, collect money so they can pay doctors to fail. That is the heart of the problem. As long as we pay doctors to fail, they will continue to do so. So what do I mean by this. As the system is set up we pay doctors for trying to make us better after we have gotten sick. They have no incentive to really help a person get well and stay well, for life! What we need is a system that only rewards doctors if the person stays well. For instance suppose rather than paying an insurance company we actually paid the doctor or hospital a small monthly or annual fee while we were well. Now suppose, what do you think would happen if we could stop paying them, if we got sick, until a set amount of time after we were well again? Do you think that they would then have an incentive to keep their patients well? The real causes of disease are well known. They have been proven beyond any doubt. But those in the world health system, say that their patients are too stubborn to change what they do, so why tell them how to get well? If your doctor knew what was causing your health crisis, would you want him/her, to prescribe an expensive ongoing treatment to hide the symptoms, or would you want to be told what you could do, at little or no cost, to eliminate it completely? The big question I would ask is this; are you really too stubborn to change, or would you like to know what causes disease so you can eliminate it, or prevent it from developing in the first place? Because it would be too much to ask doctors to depend on the poor to pay as planned, I would suggest that we adopt the fair tax and let the government pay doctors a fixed fee per patient who registers for this plan, regardless of income. The patient would attend classes taught by their doctor. The doctor would teach them how to get well and stay well. They would have private sessions to talk about their diet and lifestyle. The doctor would assess their life practices and tell them what they need to change to stay well. In this system drugs and all other means used by the doctor would only be used as a temporary measure. The patient would be told the truth up front, that the meds would not remove the cause of their health crisis. They would be told what they are doing that is causing their crisis and what they have to do to correct the situation. It would be an honest system, where the truth was more important than money. The only way to have affordable health insurance is the change the entire system. The reason the government will not adopt such a plan is that people would live longer and draw more social security. Though they would not have as much expense for Medicare they would not want people to live too long. But with the Fair Tax plan combined with the health system I propose it would work. |
