JANUARY 11, 2010 3:19PM
Solutions to the High Cost of Healthcare
Fixing Healthcare in America: It’s Simple With a Bit of Will (copyright 2006)
ByMartin Lewis Want to fix healthcare Mr. and Mrs. Patient? Stop going to the doctor for simple maladies that can be taken care of at home. Stop trying to fix things that are not broken. Dentists need not be visited every three months--neither do doctors, chiropractors, podiatrists, acupuncturists, witch doctors, Brahmans, etc. Drop demand for healthcare and the price will drop. Hey doctors! How about telling your patients they are too fat, they don’t exercise enough, they should wear a seatbelt, they should stop taking harmful drugs, they should stop smoking. Tell those patients that if they don’t start listening to your advice you won’t see them again. Tell these patients they’ll be on the national “I want to die young” list and no doctor will be allowed to treat them. Want to drop the price of drugs? Stop allowing drug companies to advertise as if any layman has any idea what is good or bad for them while they are watching ABC News with Charlie Gibson [now Diane Sawyer]. Stop drug representatives from giving free lunches, dinners, vacations and golf outings to doctors. And, while you are at it, stop holding up generic equivalents from an earlier life behind the drug counter. Drop demand for unneeded prescription drugs and the price will drop. Want to stop malpractice costs from rising? If a doctor makes a mistake, make them stop seeing patients for 3 months and re-train them. If the same doctor makes two mistakes, stop her from seeing patients for 6 months and spend the time re-training. Three mistakes, 9 months without patients, and on and on until the good doctor can’t see patients altogether. And, hey physicians, heal yourselves. Get rid of your tired, your alcoholic, your drug happy, and your incompetent brethren. They don’t have a right to be a doctor any longer. It’s a privilege, remember? Help the doctors who misstep become better and drop bad doctors like hot coals, and the cost of malpractice will drop. Want to help poor people receive healthcare? Reinstate the national draft. All persons, men and women, serve three years. Period. After that they will be automatically eligible for the VA Healthcare System. Want to be doctors or nurse? The tuition is free. After your training you will work to care for the poor only for three years, and that will count as your military service. Thus, you will also now be eligible for VA Healthcare. Want to cut the cost of insurance? Go back to the not-for-profit Blue Cross/Blue Shield model. No one makes money; all the premiums go to caring for the insured. The more money you earn the more healthcare insurance premium you pay. How can anyone justify the concept of senior management getting fully paid health insurance while the rank and file pays a percentage of the premium? Take away the profit motive and people get healthcare coverage for their insurance premiums, not insure dividends paid to insurance company shareholders. That’s it. Now go do it!
Pavanne Veltman
littleboxofspoons
JoeBono
T-Bucket
Russell Simmons
David Brin
Salon.com
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