HEALTHCARE FOR REAL

The recently adopted healthcare law (herein "Obamacare" for convenience) should be overturned by the US Supreme Court on grounds of unconstitutionality and/or be repealed by the Congress. In its place should be adopted a new, truly UNIVERSAL, publicly-funded healthcare law--WITHOUT ANY REQUIRED INSURANCE-CO. PARTICIPATION--and no employer mandates, the kind of plan that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama killed. A proper plan should be government-run/single-payer/"Medicare For All," as others have called it. The government system (Medicare) is already in place. The size of a patient's co-pay or annual contribution could and should be means-tested, but the bulk (80%?) of the cost ought to be covered by higher INCOME (not payroll) taxes. In fact, the current 2.9% regressive Medicare payroll taxI should be totally repealed. It is a needless burden on workers and employers. An ill-advised increase is being planned, however, to offset rising costs in Medicare. That may well aggravate current unemployment and "under-employment" and business stagnation.

Yes, there would be fraud, but it could be "managed." (That kind of fraud would not be nearly as bad as current military procurement fraud, for example.) Unlike "Obamacare," primary participation by insurance companies should be superfluous. There is simply no need for a proper healthcare system to allow health insurance companies, acting as "middlemen," to skim off their unnecessary share of the cashflow. They could, instead, market supplemental plans like current Medicare supplementals. "Medical Insurance" is not synonymous for "Healthcare"! It is simply not essential to a proper government-run system.  Besides, haven’t the PRIVATE healthcare insurance companies really had quite enough time and opportunity to provide a DECENT system instead of the ludicrous, insurance-centric “pig-sty” we now have?

The chances of such a program getting through the current Congress are almost non-existent!  President Obama squandered the most likely opportunity for proper action when the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress.  Those days are gone, now, and the Republicans may well take control of the Senate after the 2012 elections!  Obama has only himself and Harry Reid to blame.

The insurance companies had their opportunity to "fix the problem" after the failure of Hillary Clinton's questionable health-insurance proposals in the mid-1990's. The companies did nothing, however. They squandered their "right" to be the prime beneficiaries of a national program as they now are under "Obamacare."  Bill Daley (son of the Chicago mayor and later Commerce Secretary) attended a healthcare conference in DC back then.  Daley's job was to sell the "Hillary" plan to Congress.  I stood up and told Daley that all the government had to do (at the time) was to guarantee (1) insurability, (2) portability, and (3) non-discrimination, but Hillary, her cohort Ira Magaziner and Daley had made it needlessly complex, with all sorts of predatory employer mandates, and it predictably failed.  The fault for that avoidable outcome may be laid at their feet!  They were all very arrogant and patronizing and would not heed anyone's varying opinion.  Those attitudes alone may have done more damage in Congress than anything else!

If a good and proper program were adopted, it would prioritize prenatal and pediatric care and limit certain kinds of truly non-emergency treatments for those over 80. It would stress elder COMFORT over most anything else, INCLUDING the use of narcotic drugs if necessary, and it should legalize voluntary euthanizing. It should liberalize and promote out-patient treatment processes, and the authority for narcotic-drug regulation should be taken away from the DEA and its very existence should be revoked!  The DEA is a most unnecessary bureaucracy.  All drug regulation should be turned over to the FDA instead.

In fact, "victory" should be declared forthwith in the absurd "War On Drugs," and ALL federal drug prohibitions should be immediately repealed.  ALL those financial resources should be redirected elsewhere, such as for drug-addiction therapies!  Such a shift could substantially relieve the cost of "Medicare For All."  All non-violent and petty drug offenders in the federal prison system should be immediately pardoned and set free (thereby reducing the absurd costs of operating the federal prison system)!  Drug use/addiction are legitimately HEALTH issues, not law-enforcement issues!

Other countries have figured out how to allow doctors to earn comfortable livings and work enthusiastically in their chosen professions.  Why would that be a problem here?  Of course, the likelihood of major six-figure windfalls for specialists might be tempered, but why should they be legally protected?   Doctors might actually wind up working more predictable hours with less stress and anxiety!   The benefits-filing process could be streamlined and simplified, thereby relieving healthcare providers of needless paperwork.

Patent protections for meds and other devices should be extended to run from date of approval rather than from date of application.  And, the antitrust laws should be amended to allow the formation of voluntary co-ops for purchase of meds and devices in bulk and from any sources, domestic or foreign, so long as the meds or devices are FDA-approved.  FDA funding should be expanded to streamline the approval process, which I would open to all comers.

Unfortunately, and as previously stated, the chances of such changes being approved in the current Congress are almost nil, but that is what President Obama and Senator Harry Reid should have done in the first place.  "Obamacare" is a hopeless mess.