Taking Control of Health Care Back From Third Parties
One of the most interesting features of Medscape is a recurring brief video editorial about topics of general interest to the medical community. A recent commentary suggesting how US doctors and patients could collaborate to significantly reduce health care costs, expand coverage, and increase the national quality of care caught my eye. This proposal is being presented so that readers can decide for themselves if these simple principles can be as effective as the writer believes.
The full text is reproduced below. For more information, or to listen to the video version of this commentary, click here . (NOTE: You will have to register if you are not already a member of Medscape)
"Together we can heal the healthcare crisis.
We are the ones who know what is wrong and how to fix it. But doctors and patients must do it together.
We need an enhanced and improved Medicare-type program that will pay doctors no less than they are now making and serve every single person in the United States. That program is embodied already in a bill now moving forward in Congress, H.R. 676.1
We shouldn't continue to stand for waiting lines, nor government or corporate interference in what is covered, nor restrictions on necessary medicine.
The doctor and the patient would decide. There would be no dictatorial rules mandating which doctor or specialist can be used and no restriction on the medications that the doctor can prescribe.
It means we would no longer be paying for insurance companies. About 30% of every healthcare dollar now goes to them, but they provide no healthcare. Our dollars would all go to doctors and hospitals and bona fide healthcare procedures, including a big dose of proven preventive measures. We would insist on negotiating a fair price with pharmaceutical companies and necessary prescription drugs for all. This too is encompassed in House Resolution 676.
Medicare is a very conservative program. Medicare as the insurer would continue to cost only about 2% to administer. This would save us about 28% of the cost of healthcare and provide enough money to pay for the best medicine in the world for every single person in this country with money left over.
But this can only work if doctors and patients do it together. We know what we need. Now we have to make it clear to the people who make the decisions.
I am Marilyn Clement, National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW!,2 and that's my opinion."
References
- Healthcare-NOW! About HR676. Available at: www.healthcare-now.org/hr676.php?sid=4&subid=16 . Accessed July 25, 2005.
- Healthcare-NOW! Available at: www.healthcare-now.org Accessed July 25, 2005.