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To: varmintman
ObamaCare is about power, but it has the support of Pharma and some medical and legal groups, and that's about the money.

1. Elimination of lawsuits against doctors and other medical providers.

We have tribunals like this. Eventually they get captured. Checkout the reports about non-judicial foreclosures and what happens when the Banks lie to force folks into foreclosure. This won't work. Elimination of stupid lawsuits would be a good idea, and there are any number of ideas on how to do this. Let each state try to figure it out.

2. Elimination of the artificial exclusivity of the medical system.

Absolutely. This was part of HillaryCare, the idiot idea that too many doctors drove up the price. The whole idea of 'Certificate of Need' for hospitals and medical schools is counter productive. We just need a 'Certificate of Quality' for such things, and it need not be a government certificate.

3. Elimination of the factors which drive the cost of medicines towards unaffordability.

No lawsuits against Vioxx or Thalidomide? Again, the problem is stupid or trivial lawsuits. And trusting the FDA (or any government puke wanting a better paying job in big pharma) is not the right way to go. You can't sue the FDA now, but you should be able to.

There are suggestions like 'loser pays' for trivial lawsuits. Let the different states try different things. Maybe let Pharma refuse to sell in states that allow ridiculous trials and verdicts. Maybe let the FDA and FDA employees be sued if bad results were hidden. Maybe have the government should publish on the web, in formal form, all test studies done with government aid. Right now there is a bias to publish only positive results.

4. Elimination of the outmoded WW-II notion of triage in favor of a system which took some rational account of who pays for the system and who doesn't.

Triage is always needed. But what we need is Four-age. Check the ability to pay first, and put those who can pay to the head of the line.

What we have now is a system where it's easier for the hospital to get paid for the illegal than the insured. One of the reasons you get a bill of $10,000 reduced to $300 under insurance, is that the bill of $10,000 for the illegal is what is present to the government as a loss for indigent care.

Maybe hospitals and doctors should be allowed only a couple of price points that must be publicly listed - those paying cash, those paying with insurance. And cash customers should get a lower price. Nobody should be forced to provide charity care.

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Pretending that the indigent should get Rockefeller quality care, while the rest of us don't, is a major problem. This odd way of thinking is a problem beyond easy fixes.

I would not yank Med school credentials, but I might make them swallow the cost of failed students. Carnegie Mellon tells the parents of their students that the school knows that they are getting the cream of the crop of young minds, and that if the kid fails, the school has failed them in some way. They won't swallow any costs, but they do much more to monitor progress and keep parents informed in the first year.

Maybe the med school needs to swallow 1/2 the tuition for washed out doctors. Or just maybe the government gets out of the business of worrying about and paying for Med schools and just publishes the results. It could be that some students think Med schools that wash out more students are better and are willing to take the risk. If the government isn't subsidizing it, it's not a problem for the government to fix.

8 posted on 06/30/2012 8:41:52 AM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: slowhandluke

You have the idea more or less. We need to be looking at rational ways to reduce the cost of medicine, not just extend the present system to any and all at yours and my expense.


13 posted on 06/30/2012 9:52:52 AM PDT by varmintman
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