Think bigger!
All that is not fee for service is not necessarily commie pinko socialized medicine.
The medical industrial complex wields tyrannical power that King George would have envied.
Anyone proposing a constitutional amendment making health care a right?
I did well as a capitalist,believe strongly in capitalism but, unbridled capitalism will reduce us to oligarchy. In our system that seems to enshrine the right of corporate execs to make 5 or 50 times the income of supreme court judges, it's easy to predict who would become the oligarchs.
I like regulated monopolies for infrastructure industries that are necessary for life as we have come to know it. I think electric generation and transmission, telecommunications, mass transit and health care easily make the cut into that category.
Deregulation and privatization were first sold as getting the government off of business's back, and lowering prices by promoting competition. It was also going to promote innovation.
What we got instead were the likes of Enron, Haliburton, United Health Care, last year's legendary profits of Exxon-Mobile, an aging, failing power grid, falling bridges, Medicare part D and; whoda thunk it,a wall street collapse. Try to read your phone or electric bill.
Given the time this group devotes to unnecessary "CYA" documentation, who is on your back? Whose back did the government get off anyway? Yours?
Fore those who still remain watchful that big brother is in our future, look again, he's on your back already, he's an industry with a big lobby. What the heck, why shouldn't Google or Microsoft manage all the medical records, Walmart for that matter, we know they would have the common good at heart, altruists that they are.
So the government is not off your back instead it let the med-ind comp ride along. Price of health care is not down,though reimbursement may be. As for innovation, lifestyle drugs got sexier but what drug co. is putting its own money into what you need? When was the last new antibiotic introduced?
How about an auction, Health insurers put up around $50B to bid on the right to be a regulated monopoly,the single payer, guaranteed 5%profit, administer plan defined by other than themselves.
How about no-fault malpractice insurance, patient pays insurance against medical error?
I would go on and on but I,m out of time.
Mario Maurizi
Office Lackey
