Posted by Shyam Moondra
The health care bills passed by various committees in the Senate and House will cover many, if not all, of the 40 millions or so people who are presently uninsured, thanks to the subsidies provided by taxpayers' money at a cost of little less than $1 trillion over ten years. However, these bills will most likely increase the costs for those who presently do have the insurance coverage and/or the quality of health care will go down. All in all, none of the bills being currently considered by the Congress is satisfactory and the American people have a reason to worry about the future.
The following are the major weaknesses of the health care bills being considered and what needs to be done to improve them:
· The main problem is greed and profiteering among the service providers. We need to regulate insurance companies, hospitals, and drug companies as utilities. Health care is just as essential as electricity, gas, water, and telephone service. The state public health care commissions (structured in the same way as state public utility commissions are structured) should decide on the rates and profit margins of the health care providers. This approach will ensure that the health care costs remain under control.
· The final plan must have a non-profit government option to keep the competitive pressure on greedy health care providers. This option will provide an added protection if the other methods of cost reductions don't produce the desired results. Without this option, it does not seem fair to require people to buy mandatory insurance at inflated rates from the profit-hungry providers. This mandatory imposition on the public without a means to buy the insurance at a reasonable rate may even be unconstitutional.
· The inflated health care costs are partly due to exorbitant malpractice claims and huge malpractice insurance premiums hospitals and doctors have to pay that induce them to over-prescribe tests and treatments just to protect themselves. Without an effective tort reform, it's very unlikely that any of the proposed health care plans will result in lower health care costs.
· The current patent laws make it difficult for competing drug manufacturers to bring out inexpensive generics to the market place. The final health care plan should change the patent laws shortening the duration of exclusivity to enable generic offerings sooner. Also, the plan should allow re-importation of drugs from Canada and Mexico.
