Health Reform Even Republicans Can Like

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY & OUTLINE

1. The Principles Behind My Health Delivery Model:
   1. Put People First! All Americans are important, not just seniors, not just the employed, not just pregnant women and not just children. We need to re-prioritize the issues surrounding healthcare delivery,
   2. Get Our Healthcare Priorities Straight! 42 million people have no safety net assuring them access the healthcare they need. Congress argues over prescription drug benefits for seniors, but only acts on issues that drain more dollars from actual care delivery. HIPAA, the privacy law was more important than those 42 nlillion uninsured folks and will force $22 billion dollars to be spent for compliance.
   3. Imbue Our Lawmakers With a Fervor that Implementation of a New Model for US Healthcare Delivery is Absolutely Feasible and Critically Necessary! Instead of tweaking, adjusting and adding bits and pieces to our present deficient health delivery system, we need a major overhaul. But to reach that goal advocates for change must have a fervor that rings throughout the halls of Congress. Besides change to the healthcare system, advocates must also convince economists that financing these changes need never strain the treasury.
   4. Educate, Inform, Lobby! There are numerous special interests with considerable influence to subvert changes to our health delivery system even when those changes would help many people. Putting people jirst must be given prominence if there is to be any hope for a new health delivery model in this country. Advocates need a war chest. As my model is friendly to providers and insurers, I would hope to gain their financial support.
      1. We spend $1.4 Trillion healtlicare dollars, but half those dollars are being used for non-care items and nobody seems to notice or care. That must be changed.
2. Financing a New US Health Deliverv Model: I do not advocate one national health plan. Instead, I believe our federal government should mandate a minimum level of benefits. Financing a new model is to me more important than the benefits package to be provided. I recommend a 5 part plan to assure near and long-term solvency with reserves that will accommodate rapid advances in medical technology.
   1. Cut operating costs associated with our health delivery system in half to save $350 billion.
   2. If we can tax tobacco and alcohol, we can tax everything with the potential to harm or kill people and use the proceeds exclusivel~ to finance healthcare.
   3. A special life insurance concept is proposed as one funding mechanism.
   4. Streamline IT to provide meaningful statistics of national relevance. Implementing electronic billing and collections to offer major economies and efficiency for healthcare delivery and administration.
   5. Use one half the money confiscated from drug dealers for medical care of the addicted.
3. A three-part mandatory level of health benefits for all Americans. The employed can maintain private plans that exceed the mandatory level at their own cost. All other Americans, including the uninsured, would come under the government financed mandated plan. Weaker private plans will likely fold into the federally financed plan.
   1. Hospitalization, (includes mental, SNF, rehab and assisted living), at not less than Medicare level. Lower deductible to $100 per admission.
   2. Professional Services, not less than Medicare; mental health same as any illness,
   3. Pharmacy on a formuIary/non-formulary basis and without any annual limits.
   4. Maternity, abortions, sterilizations funded through individual MSA accounts with government matching any dollars put into these accounts by the individual or their employers. Those at poverty level would be 100% funded by government. This would avoid a political battle.
4. To guarantee financial solvency of all private health plans and adherence to the federal health benefit standards, every health plan would purchase required reinsurance through the federal government.

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HEALTH REFORM EVEN REPUBLICANS CAN LIKE!

What Will It Take Before Everyone Has Access to Healthcare? When President Kennedy made getting to the moon a national causel the mobilization of government, academic sciencel industrial initiative were mixed together with enough money to get the job done and done with such single-minded purpose that' even today' it is nothing short of amazing. We have yet to achieve have that same single-mindedness with regard to resolving healthcare delivery so that it is accessible for all Americans. Arguments abound as to what is wrong with little consensus. Solutions abound, but always seem to cater to one special interest or another. And those special interests often lobby fiercely to maintain a status quo that preserves current profit levels. The lobbyist's work is made easier given that health plans' public and private, operate in an adversarial, accusatorial or confrontive manner towards providers and the public. Divide and conquer works all too well in the dysfunctional US healthcare delivery system. By attaching health care access to employment we have disenfranchised over 42 million peoplel preventing them from getting adequate healthcare on a timely basis. There is nothing about our present health delivery system that puts people first. Our priorities are badly skewed so badly our political leaders substitute HIPAA and hype because to address the really tough issues leading to solutions would impact campaign war chests and their ability to get re-elected. Every law attempting to improve accessibility contains language that excludes people and provisions that seem deliberately complex. It's like rebates. The ads always show the sale item after the rebate, but industry leaders know just as well as politicians that many people don't apply for rebates and aren't likely to go through whatever hoops are necessary to be eligible for vouchers. So farl I haven't seen any political leader taking the bull by the horns and promoting a healthcare delivery system that covers everyone. But, I do know we desperately need an impartial consensus-builder to lead the way.

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