President Barack Obama has laid out three basic principles for healthcare reform. There are numerous pathways to achieving these principles but none could be perfect. The basic health care starts with seeing a health care provider. If you cannot see a doctor in the office, you end up in the emergency room for simple medical problems, go through unnecessary tests and waste thousands of dollars. There is also lot of frustration as we have to wait long hours to get help.
Therefore the basic part of healthcare reform is our ability to see a doctor of our choice in the office. This fulfills all the three principles. This can be made possible by having a public health insurance policy and low malpractice premiums.
Public health insurance policy is very effective. About 30 states already have this for their state employees. It would help consumers by providing more competition and holding down costs, since in many areas in the country, the private market is monopolized by one carrier. Monopoly does not give any incentive for innovation or for cost effective strategies.
Most of us have seen that our favorite doctors are leaving their practices and joining hospital systems. This is because they are not able to pay their bills to sustain a successful practice. It has become very stressful for a doctor to run their office as they have to work 60-80 hours a week just to be able to feed their families. Their reimbursement for seeing a patient is going down but our expectations from them are going up. Their malpractice premiums are rising.
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