The President, and even more so, Congress, is just nibbling on healthcare and many other issues. The plan currently being debated still leaves insurance companies running the show and 37 million people uninsured. A real difference takes on many more issues.
Single-Payer. What does that mean? The Government is the single-payer.
Under this new system, everyone would receive an application for a card in the mail, with a unique number, different from your social security number. It would not be necessary to receive medical services, as if you did not have one, you would be given one at a healthcare provider, or if you lost one, it would be easy to retrieve and impossible to tamper.
The government would cover all costs for primary care, preventative medicine, impatient care, outpatient care, emergency care, prescription drugs(including marijuana), medical supplies, long term care, palliative care, mental health services, the full scope of dental, orthodontics and vision services, substance abuse treatment, full hearing services, chiropractic care, pediatric care, proven alternative medicine and all other services that a board certified licensed physician deems necessary.
There would be no cost sharing of any kind, all payments would be made by the Department of Health and Human Services. All care would be provided by private hospitals, doctors, medical groups etc. The costs of medicine, procedures, drugs etc. would be negotiated by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and doctors unions, pharmaceuticals,etc.(whose patent monopolies would be revoked and prices would be negotiated among any quality pharmaceuticals, including foreign companies.) The IOM would also set up quality controls. Both cost and quality controls would then be enforced by state governments and territorial governments. A cap would be set for medical malpractice suits.
It would become illegal, punishable by revoking a corporate charter, to provide or pay for any services covered under this act. Participating providers would be public or non-for-profit insurers, who would pay physicians' salaries and would be compensated. Investor owned hospitals would be paid for in Treasury bonds. Patients would have freedom of choice of doctors, hospitals and other providers, and their privacy would be protected by law.
All records would be computerized, protected by private-reviewed NSA developed privacy protection software. To pay for this program, there would be a 54% drop in healthcare costs, estimated by various studies. The funding for medicare and medicaid would be retained, along with a 7% increase in progressive pay roll withholding tax. By making the tax progressive, not regressive, with no cap, it would easily pay for it without increasing taxes.
Once the payment problem is solved, the other problem is why are we so sick? The disaster that is our diet, pharmaceutical drugs, the environment and tobacco would be the main poisons.
As for the diet, major education is needed. Aside from that, all agricultural subsidies to corn-based products and to any farm that is not an independent family/organic family farm should be removed. I'm not against combining agriculture with manufacturing/industry/information as long as it remains organic and meat comes from free-range animals who are ethically treated.
As for the environment, long overdue are strict standards of water purification, public water supplies should be distilled and should contain added fluoride and potassium, and should contain no chlorine or other harmful substances. Also, the clean air act should be modified along side the standards in place in Canada.
American use of pharmaceutical drugs is out of control. In a new, not-for-profit system, it won't be a racket bent on getting people sick and addicted, and Doctors will be able to provide unbiased advice to their patients. In addition, the FDA should be require to fund their own research and provide doctors with their own information. The legalized use of THC pills as a painkiller is also long overdue.
Finally, Tobacco should be regulated by the FDA, and Tobacco companies should be flat prohibited from adding any nicotine to their products, and should not be allowed to add anything else to the cigarettes, since tobacco itself is not very harmful.
Also, drugs should be fully legalized, but regulated to be pure. Instead of giving opiate contracts to the Turks, we should give that contract to the Afghans, who would then turn on the Taliban, if we give them the full contract to make our painkillers, even if they double crop the fields with heroin, we could buy all of it, make sure its pure, sell it in a safe environment, provide free substance abuse rehab and needle exchange programs, and take the profits and use them to help find the National Health System. It would win the war in Afghanistan, reduce drug abuse, help stop the spread of AIDS, save money, increase individual liberty, not fill up the prisons, reduce violence and raise money. Taxing marijuana and other drugs could also raise money. It is a win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win situation.
Update: A single-payer solution might be inevitable, albeit inadequate, if the piece of crap solution the democrats put out passes, especially if the Schumer proposal passes.