HEALTHPLANUSA.NET Restoring Affordable Health Plans Reverting from a Vertical to a Horizontal Industry
The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons held their annual meeting at Redondo Beach in Torrance, California on Sept 18 to Sept 21, 2019. This is the only professional physician organization that is for freedom in health care. Returning healthcare to a market-based industry will make all costs transparent so that a patient can discuss with his physician the cost-benefit aspect of any proposed treatment. This will illuminate high-cost care, before it is a fait accompli, to allow for a return of health care to the medical market-place where it becomes affordable to all Americans.
1. The Transformation of the American Hospital
As taxation increased throughout U.S. history, conferring a tax exemption on hospitals caring for the poor seemed compassionate and just. And there was historical precedent: according to Andrea Castro, writing in the Pace Law Review: "the policies that initially conferred tax-exempt status on hospitals can trace their roots to the Elizabethan Statute of Charitable Uses of 1601" which "bestowed exemptions upon hospitals and other 'charitable'" organizations which promoted the common general welfare." Hospitals took all comers as a “community benefit” to “earn” their tax-exempt status by government.
But this tax-favored status has been compounded with a nexus of government subsidies and privilege and thus modern hospital operations can seem more like patronage pits instead of volunteer houses of healing.
Hospitals dodge taxes, overcharge patients with inflated chargemaster prices, pay executives millions, and leave the state taxpayers holding the bag. It is time for hospitals to post prices, compete on price and quality, cancel their cronyism with government, and pay their fair share of taxes.
2. The U. S. District Court upheld racial discrimination at Harvard
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) reacted with disappointment to the decision by a United States District Court upholding racial discrimination in admissions by Harvard University.
“Racial discrimination is wrong,” said NAS President Peter Wood. “Unfortunately, Judge Allison D. Burroughs engaged in mental gymnastics to find Harvard’s behavior legal. Burroughs acknowledged that Harvard considers race ‘as a positive attribute’ for some races, but refused to admit that this results in intentionally negative outcomes for non-favored races.”
Wood continued, “Race should play no role in college admissions. Colleges and universities should concern themselves with life of the mind, not the color of their students’ skin. Academic achievement, proven ability, ambition, and commitment to learning should form the basis for college admissions decisions.”
3. China Rx: Exposing the Risks of American Dependence on China
Award-winning author Rosemary Gibson, Author of China Rx, gave a very disturbing presentation on the world pattern of generic drug manufacturing. She discussed her new book China Rx, an investigative report into the dependence on China for the provision of crucial medications and the difficulties it creates for FDA oversight and more importantly for national security.
4. Single Payer is more Expensive than Private Care
How to Make Health Care Unaffordable and Inaccessible
By Bradley Thomas | September 09, 2019 | www.Fee.Org
Third-party payment systems destroy normal market forces. Currently, in the US nearly 90 percent of medical care expenses are paid by a third party other than the consumer.
Whether it’s Medicare for All or some other variant of a single-payer plan, the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates agree that more government control will make health care more affordable and accessible.
The presumption behind these plans is that there is currently too much freedom in the health care industry, and only more state intervention will reign in costs and make health care more accessible to more people.
But the opposite is true.
Indeed, if one set out to intentionally make health care more expensive and less accessible, the surest way to do so would be to implement the kind of market-distorting interventions the government has been enacting for decades. . .
5. Lean HealthCare: Is Based on Deductibles and Co-Pays on Every Procedure
Over my 45 years in the private practice of medicine the excessive costs we daily observed were primarily related to patient demand for additional unnecessary consultations; additional unnecessary laboratory testing; additional unnecessary x-rays; CT scans, MRI scans; additional unnecessary hospital days above that which was necessary for making the diagnosis and begin appropriate treatment.
We had one patient ready for discharge on Dec 23 but she claimed it was cruel to discharge her the day before Christmas when the family expected guests for the holiday. She felt that an extra three days in the hospital would be kind and considerate. She didn’t believe it would cost anything. But an extra $1000++ per day, even if covered by her insurance, is very expensive house sitting. When patients are not aware of the charges, who can blame them for wanting an extra $3,000 to cover conveniences? Patients who are insulated from the costs have no comprehension of how much their health care expenses mount up. They could easily double or triple their health care costs with these requests as they try to influence their physicians.
6. How Free is Free Health Care?
The Medical Care Wheel of Misfortune by Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD, September 24, 2019
You finally get your dream and are selected to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. You get to see Pat Sajak and Vanna White! You win a vacation to some country that you don’t really want to see. You cannot get the cash equivalent. You have to take 10 days off of work to take the free vacation you did not want. You discover that you have to pay the tax on the free vacation.
Or you win a free car. You have a perfectly functioning 3-year-old car. The free car was not really the car you would have selected. You accepted it because it was free. Then you see that you have to pay tax on the list price of the free car. You also discover that the collision insurance and Department of Motor Vehicles registration for the free car are significantly higher than for the car you currently own.
These are examples of why nothing is “free.”
7. Overheard on Capitol Hill: The Democratic Socialists Goal: Free Distribution of Healthcare
Between Wilson, a Liberty/Freedom Senator and Sampson, a TSR (Tax/Spend/Regulate) Senator
Senator Wilson: There seems to be a run on who can give out the most benefits and make them free. There doesn’t seem to be a limit on how much this is going to cost. Initial estimates are in the $trillions. . .
8. Innovations will cease in Medicare-for-all.
The majority of Americans understand that we have enjoyed the greatest advancement in medicine and healthcare in this country ever. Most socialists recognize that. But equality trumps quality in their estimation. If everyone’s healthcare is slightly less, that is interpreted as the rich get less and the poor get more. The animosity towards the rich also surpasses the quality of care. The socialists also have animosity towards the medical profession who they interpret as rich. They are not aware of the number of bankruptcies experienced by physicians. If made aware, they wouldn’t believe it.
With Medicare-For-All, the accomplishments in medicine and healthcare over the past century will go downhill. As we experience more resistant infections, the research for new antibiotics will decrease to that of other European, South American, Asian and African Countries. We will then revert to the plagues of yesteryear. Tuberculosis will again become a plague as the new resistant tubercle bacillus runs rampant throughout the world as it did in the nineteenth century when tuberculosis was endemic. When expensive pharmaceutical research grinds to a halt, will we have enough antibiotics in the pipeline to kill the newly raging pestilences?
9. The Health Plan for the USA: A deductible equal to the basic costs of routine care.
The healthcare debate in the United States has totally become a State issue. It has been blown out of proportion as to insurmountable costs. The liberal left thinks that health care costs are too expensive unless the government takes over the industry. However, past experience of the government controlling costs in any industry is a failure, whether it be the Post Office, the Rail Roads or the Space Industry. The government has not had any space travel or significant exploration of space since the Mir Cooperative Solar Array (MCSA) was delivered to the Russian space station by Shuttle Atlantis (STS-74) in 1995. Except for Voyager 1 which is currently about 11 billion miles from Earth, and Voyager 2 currently 9 billion miles from home, very little NASA activity into space has occurred. This may be one area the government is ceding to the private sphere. The era of private spaceflight is breaking new ground since June 4, 2010, with the first test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket by the company Space Exploration. Much of the current space activity is done privately. Does this give hope for an economical private post office? Or to a fully private railroad travel industry since Amtrak continues to be in the same economic plight as the USPS? Or to the private healthcare industry?
We have been working on a health plan that would solve the current conundrum on health care in the United States. A small group has met in my office every Thursday evening for 4 hours over three years to come up with a tiered plan that would please both the Liberals and the Conservatives. We believed this would accommodate Americans of every stripe. However, we were unable to find any insurance company that was remotely interested.
Without any funding, our incubator project was terminated. Now with the Democratic Presidential candidates making this a national crisis, we have gone back in our files to update portions for further discussion.
To be realistic, the cost of health care falls into two categories—routine predictable outpatient office and ambulatory care which health insurance makes more expensive—and the unexpected emergency/catastrophic care which requires health insurance.
10. Personal Responsibility and Strong Character are Primary
“Are We Rome” by Lawrence Reed, President of FEE.
If you don’t demonstrate personal responsibility and strong character in your own life, you will lose your freedom. And if you don’t demand that same level of responsibility and character from those you choose to lead you, that’s even worse! Rome which gave us great lovers of liberty and philosophers like Cicero ended up empowering the likes of Nero and Caligula.
One Socialist election can destroy three centuries of work.
–from “Are We Rome” by Lawrence Reed, President of FEE.
11. Recent Postings: In the July 2019 HPUSA Quarterly Journal
Featured Article: The Initial Encounter with Eyes Wide Open
In the News: Editorial: Trust in Health Care - JAMA: July 15, 2019
International Healthcare: Health services in Canada are not free.
Government Healthcare: The Medicare Enslavement Web
12. Restoring Affordable Health Plans by Moving from a Vertical to a Horizontal Industry:
Where Private Physicians – Patients – Lab, X-ray, CT, MRI – Urgent Care – Consultants
Are in a Level Horizontal Playing Field and not enmeshed in the
Vertical Hospital/Insurance/AMA/Government/Bureaucratic Complex
This Will Reduce Health Care Costs at Least in Half.
IN THIS SECTION WE FEATURE FREEDOM LOVING ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR YOUR INTEREST AND SUPPORT IN OUR EFFORTS TO KEEP GOVERNMENTAL INTRUSIONS MINIMAL AND TO PREVENT OUR RETURN TO THE SOCIALISM OF EUROPE WE ESCAPED THREE CENTURIES AGO WHICH IS NOW RE-THREATENING US IN 2020.
Del Meyer
Del Meyer, MD, CEO & Founder, HealthPlanUSA
6945 Fair Oaks Blvd, Ste 2, Carmichael, CA 95608
[email protected] Since this may not forward to my ISP currently, please use ISP
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Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the father of socialized medicine in Germany, recognized in 1861 that a government gained loyalty by making its citizens dependent on the state by social insurance. Thus socialized medicine, Medicare-For-All, any single-payer initiative, or Social Security was born for the benefit of the state and of a contemptuous disregard for people’s welfare.
When FDR implemented SS benefits starting at age 62, the average life expectance was 62, Hence, half of all possible recipients had died and only half would actually receive SS benefits. Now with life expectancy 15 years longer to ager 78, with 100 million Americans now receiving benefits essentially an additional 15 years, it should be obvious to every politician that if SS reform were ever tried, there would be approximately 100 million votes against him before the campaign even begins. The increasing welfare benefits thus prevent necessary reform.
Social Security should be indexed to life expectancy. With an additional 15 years of life expectancy, with only a 10-year correction instead of 15-year, early benefits should now begin at age 72 and full benefits at age 75. Since this will not and cannot happen, SS will go bankrupt within our lifetime and our children will be the losers who will be denied retirement benefits.
We must also remember that ObamaCare has nothing to do with appropriate healthcare; it was similarly projected to gain loyalty by making American citizens dependent on the government and eliminating their choice and chance in improving their welfare or quality of healthcare. Socialists know that once people are enslaved, freedom seems too risky to pursue
Del Meyer, MD
Pulmonary Medicine