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>The voters had very little recourse like they do in the free market where they can just go to a different healthcare provider, because they are forced to pay t

>The voters had very little recourse like they do in the free market where they can just go to a different healthcare provider, because they are forced to pay taxes for the VA hospitals either way. The average voter does not have enough income to have an actual choice. The way it goes is that you pick your GP from a list (so you have a little bit of choice there), and when you have a significant issue, your GP works with a specialist and your insurance company to decide if you qualify for any further care. You can get it without the insurance helping you, but you are risking bankruptcy doing such. As it stands, other countries spend less on health care with better outcomes. So we can definitely improve the system. That being said, I'll support privatized healthcare if we can get the same done for police care and CPS. If you don't like the people protecting you, then you can get seek out new ones.

marcoperaza 11y ago
Here's a program for market-based healthcare reform: 1. Eliminate incentives for employer-based insurance. Give legal protection to insurance cooperatives, where individual people could come together to buy insurance as a group. 2. Eliminate restrictions on buying insurance across state lines. This will take care of state-level regulations that drive costs up. 3. Eliminate artificial caps on the number of seats in medical schools, currently set by the AMA with government backing. 4. Loosen other requirements for medical licensure, like four years of undergraduate study in a totally unrelated program. Why are the people of America paying for Doctors' underwater basket-weaving courses? This and the previous point are a political minefield, so you can accomplish mostly the same by letting Nurses or Physicians Assistants to do most or all of a doctor's job. People can still choose to spend more on AMA-approved doctors, but it should be their own prerogative with their own money. 5. Institute an (at least initially) government-backed catastrophic insurance program for when people have ridiculous amounts of medical bills that they can't afford. This is probably what the market would have produced over the last century if not for government meddling. 6. High-deductible plans + health savings accounts are actually a pretty good idea. It puts people directly on the hook for their routine medical expenses, so they shop around and find lower prices. Milton Friedman wrote a great piece with some of these ideas in 2001: http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2001winter/article1.html http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2001winter/article...
- bmelton 11y ago
  Allow the FDA to recognize drug approvals already approved in other comparable countries. Eliminate Certificate of Need programs for the establishment of new hospitals. Along with your #3, you could work to increase the number of fellowships that doctors use to restrict the supply of doctors ready to replace them. Make HSA dollars be giftable, and/or don't allow them to be use it or lose it. Make all medical spending be tax-free.

marcoperaza 11y ago

Here's a program for market-based healthcare reform: 1. Eliminate incentives for employer-based insurance. Give legal protection to insurance cooperatives, where individual people could come together to buy insurance as a group. 2. Eliminate restrictions on buying insurance across state lines. This will take care of state-level regulations that drive costs up. 3. Eliminate artificial caps on the number of seats in medical schools, currently set by the AMA with government backing. 4. Loosen other requirements for medical licensure, like four years of undergraduate study in a totally unrelated program. Why are the people of America paying for Doctors' underwater basket-weaving courses? This and the previous point are a political minefield, so you can accomplish mostly the same by letting Nurses or Physicians Assistants to do most or all of a doctor's job. People can still choose to spend more on AMA-approved doctors, but it should be their own prerogative with their own money. 5. Institute an (at least initially) government-backed catastrophic insurance program for when people have ridiculous amounts of medical bills that they can't afford. This is probably what the market would have produced over the last century if not for government meddling. 6. High-deductible plans + health savings accounts are actually a pretty good idea. It puts people directly on the hook for their routine medical expenses, so they shop around and find lower prices. Milton Friedman wrote a great piece with some of these ideas in 2001: http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2001winter/article1.html http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2001winter/article...

bmelton 11y ago
Allow the FDA to recognize drug approvals already approved in other comparable countries. Eliminate Certificate of Need programs for the establishment of new hospitals. Along with your #3, you could work to increase the number of fellowships that doctors use to restrict the supply of doctors ready to replace them. Make HSA dollars be giftable, and/or don't allow them to be use it or lose it. Make all medical spending be tax-free.