Healthcare alternatives from Bird Dog at Maggie's Farm

Bird Dog at Maggie's Farm (Blog) shares his emphatic draft email with reform ideas in a post titled, Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call.... He offers his reforms ideas and interesting insights (excerpted here).

The real problems, I think, are these:

1. People equate insurance with medical care. Wrong. That has been an unfortunate accident of history, and it was the fatal error of Medicare. We need much more Major Medical available for people. It is affordable, and it is true insurance.

2. Medical insurance businesses ought to be able to compete across state borders.

3. Portability. People ought to be able to keep a coverage they have.

4. Pre-existing conditions. Insurance regulations ought to require companies to pool those with pre-existing conditions, same as is done with multiple-claim drivers with auto insurance.

5. The costs of the Medicare program. It's almost free to the beneficiaries, regardless of their wealth or poverty. Government created that mess, so fix it, if you can, over time. (I think it should have been means-tested.)

6. The uninsured. Let's think a bit about who they are, and what, if anything, ought to be done about them. Medicaid already covers the poor. I know that when I pay a hospital bill it includes a charge for the uninsured, the illegals, etc., just the same as my kids' tuition bill includes an additional charge for the scholarship kids, and just as the price of something at the store includes an additional charge for theft and pilferage. I quote from this essay:

7. Malpractice tort reform. All physicians admit to unnecessary expenses for CYA purposes.

8. The money spent on medical care in America. I happen to think it's great. We spend more money on medical things because that is what people in wealthy nations do. Dental implants, new knees and hips, physical therapy, psychotherapy, arterial stents, antidepressants, Alzheimer treatments, lazer vision treatment, cornea transplants, etc. That's why Americans at age 70 are so active and in such good shape compared to anywhere else in the world. It's a good thing for medical care to be such a big driver of the economy. It only becomes a "problem" when government has to pick up the tab.

In conclusion, I ask that you folks in government please stop doing things for us. We Americans can figure it out ourselves. We always have, through good times and bad.