Healthcare reform made easy

I have been in the medical insurance brokerage business for 20 years. Below are an outline of my ideas to fix our current system. I hope it helps

Prescription drugs

Currently prescription drugs make up 17% of insurance premium costs

In virtually all other countries the patient pays for their prescription and the government subsidizes medicine only for people that cannot afford it and qualify for assistance Make pharmaceutical companies compete for business from the consumer. In this country, the government currently pays for 36% of the costs and it is raising. If we made pharmaceutical purchases truly consumer driven, we would see a major drop in prices. Currently for the most part it is a closed system. Doctor gives you a prescription and under the current system the insurance provider requires that you fill prescriptions where they contract with their vendor. Let the consumer call around for the best deal and you will see the cost of prescriptions drop dramatically in a very short amount of time.


Malpractice reform

Doctors should be left to practicing medicine

-there are one hundred thousand deaths a year as a result of medical malpractice. The number one reason for malpractice claims, Misdiagnose.
Evidence supports that over the last decade doctors and patients do not communicate properly. We need to become better patients and more informed as to our health care options.

-there is a need to focus on restoring Doctor/Patient relationships that have been destroyed partially by managed care. Patients need to start interacting with their medical providers. With the Internet and other technology available, the tools are there.

In Illinois general practice physicians spend on average $150,000.00 per year on malpractice insurance.

My suggestion would be that all states have a Medical Malpractice review panel. Ninety three percent of medical malpractice law suits go to trial in Illinois as compared to a much less percentage in states that have medical malpractice review panels. Fourteen states currently have such systems. They weed out a lot of non sense suits. There are several things they can do almost immediately:

-federal government can require that states enact their own review panel and/or tort reform in the next 2 years. That is plenty of time to discuss in the legislative sessions.

-change the insurance contract that allows doctors not to agree to claim settlements. Let the malpractice insurance company make business decisions on settling claims. Insurance companies do it so well with other professional liability coverage. Let doctors practice medicine.

-we have risk pools for auto insurance in states why not a risk pool for excessive claims on malpractice?

-states also have regulation on Workers Compensation awards


Public Health systems

Most major cities have public health systems run by local government.

My suggestion:

In cities and towns where there is an existing public health care system use the Veterans Administration (VA)as a standard model to improve the inefficiencies. The VA has some of the best medical practice outcomes that rival virtually any health care system in the world. There is a little argument from anyone on the VA's medical outcomes.

Cook County serves 1.2 million uninsured currently. Los Angeles serves over
2 million and NY close to 2 million. Fix the current public systems in place now.



One thing I would do is if someone is in a government program, they should be required to participate in a program to reduce potential medium/high ongoing medical conditions i.e. health care screenings directed on recommendations from the AMA based on age/sex factors.

Example: you sign up for the public system, you are required to see a doctor within 90 days to establish a relationship and have a health care screening if the system calls for it. If you don't there is a consequence.



Insurance companies

Recently information released by insurance companies claim that insurance premiums are inflated $1600.00 on average annually to account for the uninsured. As more people are covered under the system, premiums should be driven down.

Electronic medical records would reduce administration. Virtually everyone has a portable media device in their homes today. Almost all medical providers offices have windows based systems



Tax on medical premiums

Instead of requiring income tax on employer sponsored medical insurance plans, why not require a flat tax of 5% of individuals that receive such a benefit. i.e. employer pays $6000.00 annually for an employee's medical insurance, it costs the employee $300.



Undocumented aliens

To even suggest that undocumented aliens should not receive health care is not even an option that should be considered. Everyone should be entitled to health care.

My feelings are that everyone should have access to quality health care and the money is in the system to provide it. I don't believe that undocumented people should be denied medical care. But on the other hand, if you are here illegally and happen to be convicted or pending trial for a criminal offense, I suggest we contact their country of origin and either:

Extradite them to face prosecution at home country and the cost of providing health and other care to those individuals will be billed to those countries or deducted from the financial aid we provide to that country.

I believe health care is a right and no one should have to worry unnecessarily about paying for their medical. I think the biggest issue in this country is that people don't know the difference between





Health care and health insurance. Health care should be a right medical insurance should be considered a privilege.



Medical inflation

Health insurance costs rise at a higher rate than anything else because Americans over use the system. Patients want all services and medical providers don't want to be sued. A lot of tests are not necessary. Better informed patients would reduce over usage. The expansion of the Internet over the last decade makes it a lot easier to access information.

Medical inflation

Health insurance costs rise at a higher rate than anything else because Americans over use the system. Patients want all services and medical providers don’t want to be sued. A lot of tests are not necessary. Better informed patients would reduce over usage. The expansion of the internet over the last decade makes it a lot easier to access information

Undocumented residents

Undocumented aliens
To even suggest that undocumented aliens should not receive health care is not even an option that should be considered. Everyone is entitled to health care.
My feelings are that everyone should have access to quality health care and the money is in the system to provide it. I don't believe that undocumented people should be denied medical care. But on the other hand, if you are here illegally and happen to be convicted or pending trial for a criminal offense, I suggest we contact their country of origin and either:
Extradite them to face prosecution at home country and the cost of providing health and other care to those individuals will be billed to those countries or deducted from the financial aid we provide to that country.
I believe healthcare is a right and no one should have to worry unnecessarily about paying for their medical. I think the biggest issue in this country is that people don’t know the difference between health care and health insurance. Health care should be a right medical insurance should be considered a privilege.

Public Health systems

Most major cities have public health systems run by local government.
My suggestion:
In cities and towns where there is an existing public healthcare system use the Veterans Administration (VA). as a standard model to improve the inefficiencies. The VA has some of the best medical practice outcomes that rival virtually any health care system in the world. There is a little argument from anyone on the VA’s medical outcomes.
Cook County serves 1.2 million uninsured currently. Los Angeles serves over 2 million and NY close to 2 million. Fix the current public system in place now.

One thing I would do is if someone is in a government program, they should be required to participate in a program to reduce potential medium/high ongoing medical conditions. i.e. health care screenings directed on recommendations from the AMA based on age/sex factors.
Example: you sign up for the public system, you are required to see a doctor within 90 days to establish a relationship and have a healthcare screening if the system calls for it. if you don’t there is a consequence

Step 2 Prescription Drugs

Currently prescription drugs make up 17% of insurance premium costs
In many all parts of the world the patient pays for their prescription and the government subsidizes . for people that cannot afford it and qualify for assistance Make prescription drugs free market. In this country, the government currently pays for 36% of the costs and it is raising. . if we made pharmaceutical purchases consumer driven, we would see a major drop in prices. Currently for the most part it is a closed system. Doctor gives you a prescription. Under the current system the insurance provider requires that you fill prescriptions where they contract with their vendor. Let the consumer call around for the best deal and you will see the cost of prescriptions drop dramatically in a very short amount of time.

My cure for health Care in the US

First Step

Malpractice reform (a must)
In Illinois General Practice physicians spend on average $150,000.00 per year on malpractice insurance. So before they even open their practice 150k?
Almost every state controls Workers Compensation awards. Why can’t they put some type of controls on Malpractice? Ninety three percent of medical malpractice law suits go to trial in Illinois as opposed a much less percentage of states that have medical malpractice review panels. Fourteen states currently have such systems. They weed out a lot of non sense suits. There are several things they can do almost immediately:
-federal government can require that states enact their own review panel and/or tort reform in the next 2 years. That is plenty of time to discuss in the legislative sessions.
-change the insurance contract that allows doctors not to agree to claim settlements. Let the malpractice insurance company make business decisions on settling claims. Insurance companies do it so well with other professional liability coverage. Let doctors practice medicine.
-we have risk pools for auto insurance in states why not a risk pool for excessive claims on malpractice? If the doctor is a real butcher he or she will lose their license any way and probably end up in jail? Or they should?
-we have to remember that this is “practicing medicine” and for the most part doctors are healers and should be allowed to do what they do best. “Practice medicine and not practice paper work jumping through hoops for insurance company’s paper work
-there are one hundred thousand deaths a year as a result of medical malpractice. The number one reason for malpractice claims? Misdiagnose. Evidence supports that over the last decade doctors and patients do not communicate properly. We need to become better patients
-we need to focus on restoring Doctor/Patient relationships that have been destroyed partially by managed care. Patients need to start interacting with their medical providers. With the internet and other technology available, there is no excuse

Health care the way it should be

I will be celebrating my 47 birthday this year. I grew up on the Northwest side of Chicago my father was a Chicago policeman and mother was a registered nurse. I remember a Dr. John Meyenburg around the corner form my home. If you were very sick, Dr. Meyenburg would see you immediately. If you couldn't see him he would walk through the alley and come to your home. It was very nice because as soon as you saw him , you felt better. And if he touched you what ever your issue was it went away. That was because Doctors are healers and when I was growing up Doctors practiced healing and treating people to make them better and restore their quality of life.
We spend so much time as a society developing a sense of community in our neighborhoods, but we somehow allowed one of the most important part

Proposed Government Health Plan

I can tell you how many phone calls I have received inquiring about my views on the Presidents health care plan.

I have yet to see what the President's plan? The only thing I have read is the proposal Congress has drafted. It is the best program I have ever seen. Actually I think it is better then the plan our elected officials enjoy now as members of the legislative branch of government. The way I understand it is that the "qualified program" that employers can either mirror (in a private insurance arrangement) or participate in has more coverage then any program being offered by any medical insurance company or employer today. The proposed program has coverage for just about any medical treatment that is available. I know of no employer program in the country that offers the extreme comprehensive coverage being proposed. So if an employer offers the same type of coverage as proposed by Congress they don't have to participate in the government program? But as far as I am able to find, there is no program available to be comparable to the qualified plan? So does that mean that everyone has to join the program? Who will pay for such a comprehesive program?


I thought it was interesting that a reporter asked the President last week if all members of Congress were going to be included in the government option. He really didn't answer the questions accept to say that he had a physician follow him everywhere he went and that he had the best health care program in the world.