Editor’s note: Copied below is a letter to the editor submitted to the Sun Cities Independent. You can post your opinions by clicking on "Reply."
Ideas for health reform
Phillip Caper, M.D., has the correct ideas to reform our dysfunctional health care system.
"Prior to about the mid-1970s, American health care institutions, like those in other developed countries, were overwhelmingly nonprofit, locally controlled entities driven by their mission — comforting the sick, controlling illness and promoting healing. Most physicians practiced independently or in small groups, free to carry out their Hippocratic oath. Hospitals were community based, nonprofit institutions governed by local volunteer boards. Private insurance companies were nonprofit and rarely crossed state lines. Pharmaceutical companies were small, often family-owned, mostly driven by George Merck’s ethic, ‘If we develop medicines that cure disease, the money will take care of itself,’" he said.
These changes must be a dominant part of any successful reform:
The first step must be to remove the profit motive from the direct provision of health care services. Medicare is effective, efficient and popular. The eligible age could initially be dropped to 55, then gradually lowered to encompass the entire population.
We must eliminate the fee-for-service system, and then move toward global budgets for hospitals and salaries and bonuses for doctors. This would allow the incomes of primary caregivers to be brought closer to those of specialists and stem the exodus out of primary care practice.
We must strengthen the ability of our public insurance system to control the prices of pharmaceuticals and medical devices to bring the U.S. more in line with other developed countries. These companies are entitled to a fair profit, but not the windfalls they are currently receiving due to the market protection they enjoy from federal patents, protection from price negotiations by Medicare and the massive public investment in biomedical research.
Health care without these basic changes is probably not worth doing, as it simply would reinforce the existing dysfunctional system.
We should listen to caring doctors like Phillip Caper. Now let’s all influence our politicians who have excellent government run health care to do the same for all U.S. citizens!
Lola Boan
Sun City
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