I’ve always been a democrat – all my life. After working at the Maryland State Department of Health, I had very obvious proof that the government is the last entity I want running anything. It is antithetical to what makes our country great and the quest for profits that makes humans work their ass off to do their best. The Obama and Hillary plans are a hand-out to the industry that destroyed our healthcare system. Their plans force me to donate my hard-earned money to the insurance industry, the very industry that destroyed our healthcare system with it’s policies, and in particular, their reimbursement policies. Forcing me to throw money at these people…damn, I would rather be fined than give those fools any of my money.
Consumers who have to spend their own money (up to a certain high deductible that correlates with a person’s income) and free market principles (price transparency and freedom to choose providers and services), and changing reimbursement policies so that docs are paid for communication, accessibility, and “quality” – not for expensive needless procedures. Specialists that do them are raking in serious, serious cash laughing at the primary care docs trying hard to alert everyone that our salary is decreasing every year while cardiologists and orthopedists are laughing at us from their Bentleys. Those same specialists are the ones sitting on the committee (the RUC) that decides reimbursement policies. Of the 29 members of the RUC, only five currently represent primary care specialties as defined by the AAFP. These committees should be made up of 85% primary care docs (according to healthcare usage) and the rest of the specialties can fight it out for the 15% dregs. I think we’d see things change if that were the case. Of course, they’d still be bitching about their high malpractice costs preventing them from making $1,000,000 that year.
Unfortunately, our politicians do not understand healthcare. Not a one has mentioned changing reimbursement strategies. Idiots. And the AMA is ineffectual.
People…Sermo could be the new AMA. They currently have about 55,000 physicians. Their growth suggests they’ll have nearly 100,000 in June. There’s power in numbers.