Health Care Reform for Delaware
This nation does not need National Health care. What it needs is true reform of our health care system. I have a much better plan that reduces costs and expands coverage without a trillion-dollar bill that an already cash strapped American tax payers cannot afford and at the expense of our seniors by cutting Medicare by a third or $500 Billion! I have worked in health care for 20 years and have a unique perspective to the problems and solutions. I will start off by giving you a little history. Back in the 70's and 80's providers got paid whatever they billed at 100% or very close to it. Insurance premiums during this time were nowhere near what they are today. Now insurance companies only pay out 10% to 30% of what is billed. Yet with this huge reduction in reimbursement, premiums have gone up 600% to 800% or more over what they were back in the 80's.
Point One:
We need tort reform. Our litigious society and the trial lawyers need to be reeled in. Frivolous law suits add millions if not billions of dollars to health care costs. They also drive providers out of healthcare, which then reduces your availability to services.
Point Two:
Pass legislation that providers cannot be permitted to charge an uninsured person any more then the Medicare reimbursement rate and these rates must be published. I'll give you an example. You are uninsured and suffer a traumatic injury. They take you to the ER and you get a $10,000 bill. You get surgery to save your life and you get a $40,0000 bill. Now you go to the ICU and spend some time in the hospital and get another $20,000 bill. Now you go home and receive a bill from the hospital for $70,0000. No person is going to pay this, because they don’t have the money and can’t envision ever paying it off. Now if this same person was insured, the actual reimbursement to the hospital might be something like $8,000. A person can wrap their mind around that number. They would be likely to say “Hey, These people saved my life. $8,000 is a lot of money, but can you put me on a five or a 10-year payment plan.” The hospital would actually get paid instead of writing off the whole bill as a loss.
Point Three:
One of the key features to any healthcare system that is missing and needs to be implemented is medical savings accounts that don’t expire. If this is done people can build up an emergency bank of money for unforeseen circumstances. Once they have a sufficient bank of money that would cover out of pocket costs in an emergent situation, they could consider low cost high deductible insurance as opposed to the outrageously expensive insurance that many of us are forced into. For my part I have personally paid out over $100,000 over the past eight years, just for the right to carry my insurance card. This number doesn’t include deductibles or money paid out of pocket by me. This money has essentially been wasted as myself and my family have had little need of our insurance. If this system were to be implemented, many people would be able to buy cheap insurance and have sufficient coverage for an emergent situation. This would also help to promote more healthy lifestyles as
the better your health the less you will need to spend. This would now free up money for many individuals to now have more to spend to feed the economy or pay down debt. Government needs to look at more sensible solutions to the healthcare problem and the time is now.
Point Four:
Pass legislation that Insurers must be not for profit organizations. These companies have thousands of people working for them who get paid to deny your healthcare or not pay the providers. The more they deny, the more they get in bonus money. You have CEO’s paying themselves $20 million per year then paying themselves a massive bonus on top of it. The greed then trickles down from there through the company without any regard for peoples well being. If they were made non-profits, healthcare premiums would come down. Employers could afford to provide healthcare for employees. The savings would allow them to higher more people and stimulate the economy. If the insurance companies take in more money then they pay out, the subscribers will get a rebate on their premiums and rates will come down for the following year. This will drastically cut cost and allow most people to be insured. It would also remove the insurers incentive to deny coverage for people with preexisting conditions as they are no longer permitted to profit on not covering you.
Spread the Word:
The only way to save health care is to remove greed from the equation. Greed should not be part of health care, because you are literally playing with peoples lives. If we don’t make changes now, less and less people will choose to be doctors. As older doctors retire we will not have enough replacing them to meet the demands of our society. This will lead to a lack of accessability to health care. What good is free health care for a few at the expense of the American taxpayer, if it leads to lack of services for us all. So the end result will be people still going to the ER for their health care regardless of insurance, because they can’t get appointments with over burdened doctors unable to keep up with demand. Help me get this out. So the people of our state and nation can see that there is another way, a better way to fix our broken health care system.
Point One:
We need tort reform. Our litigious society and the trial lawyers need to be reeled in. Frivolous law suits add millions if not billions of dollars to health care costs. They also drive providers out of healthcare, which then reduces your availability to services.
Point Two:
Pass legislation that providers cannot be permitted to charge an uninsured person any more then the Medicare reimbursement rate and these rates must be published. I'll give you an example. You are uninsured and suffer a traumatic injury. They take you to the ER and you get a $10,000 bill. You get surgery to save your life and you get a $40,0000 bill. Now you go to the ICU and spend some time in the hospital and get another $20,000 bill. Now you go home and receive a bill from the hospital for $70,0000. No person is going to pay this, because they don’t have the money and can’t envision ever paying it off. Now if this same person was insured, the actual reimbursement to the hospital might be something like $8,000. A person can wrap their mind around that number. They would be likely to say “Hey, These people saved my life. $8,000 is a lot of money, but can you put me on a five or a 10-year payment plan.” The hospital would actually get paid instead of writing off the whole bill as a loss.
Point Three:
One of the key features to any healthcare system that is missing and needs to be implemented is medical savings accounts that don’t expire. If this is done people can build up an emergency bank of money for unforeseen circumstances. Once they have a sufficient bank of money that would cover out of pocket costs in an emergent situation, they could consider low cost high deductible insurance as opposed to the outrageously expensive insurance that many of us are forced into. For my part I have personally paid out over $100,000 over the past eight years, just for the right to carry my insurance card. This number doesn’t include deductibles or money paid out of pocket by me. This money has essentially been wasted as myself and my family have had little need of our insurance. If this system were to be implemented, many people would be able to buy cheap insurance and have sufficient coverage for an emergent situation. This would also help to promote more healthy lifestyles as
the better your health the less you will need to spend. This would now free up money for many individuals to now have more to spend to feed the economy or pay down debt. Government needs to look at more sensible solutions to the healthcare problem and the time is now.
Point Four:
Pass legislation that Insurers must be not for profit organizations. These companies have thousands of people working for them who get paid to deny your healthcare or not pay the providers. The more they deny, the more they get in bonus money. You have CEO’s paying themselves $20 million per year then paying themselves a massive bonus on top of it. The greed then trickles down from there through the company without any regard for peoples well being. If they were made non-profits, healthcare premiums would come down. Employers could afford to provide healthcare for employees. The savings would allow them to higher more people and stimulate the economy. If the insurance companies take in more money then they pay out, the subscribers will get a rebate on their premiums and rates will come down for the following year. This will drastically cut cost and allow most people to be insured. It would also remove the insurers incentive to deny coverage for people with preexisting conditions as they are no longer permitted to profit on not covering you.
Spread the Word:
The only way to save health care is to remove greed from the equation. Greed should not be part of health care, because you are literally playing with peoples lives. If we don’t make changes now, less and less people will choose to be doctors. As older doctors retire we will not have enough replacing them to meet the demands of our society. This will lead to a lack of accessability to health care. What good is free health care for a few at the expense of the American taxpayer, if it leads to lack of services for us all. So the end result will be people still going to the ER for their health care regardless of insurance, because they can’t get appointments with over burdened doctors unable to keep up with demand. Help me get this out. So the people of our state and nation can see that there is another way, a better way to fix our broken health care system.