“The only difference between Republicans and Democrats is Republicans take a little longer to get there” – Molly Mulebriar
By Molly Mulebriar
Even though the Republicans now control the House, Senate and the Executive Branch of government, nothing has fundamentally changed in the national debate over what to do about run away health care costs.
The only difference between Republicans and Democrats is Republicans take a little longer to get there. Remember the passage of Medicare in 1966? Republicans were in lockstep against “socialized medicine.” Now you can’t find a Republican in office who is against Medicare.
The problem of rising health care costs has always been due to government interference, and has never had anything to do with free market forces (virtually non-existent in health care financing).
The solution is not more government interference but less of it.
Here is The Mulebriar Solution to fixing the United States health care financing system:
- Discontinue insuring primary care services. Otherwise, to continue to insure primary care is tantamount to insuring your fan belt, tires, and oil filter on your car.
- Stay away from managed care contracts which you can’t see nor audit. Managed care contracts are guaranteed to raise your costs, year after year. Moving from managed care contracts will save 50% and more immediately
- Pay providers a transparent, fair and equitable price based on pre-determined and nationally recognized benchmarks such as Medicare, Cost-to-Charge ratios, etc. Providers can and have the right to balance bill patients – they are independent business people and can charge whatever they like. Patients don’t have to use those providers whose costs are more than others
- Allow plan sponsors to adopt any benefit design that best suits their budget and needs. It is ridiculous to outlaw deductibles greater than mandated by ObamaCare for example.
- Remove all federal and state mandated benefits that drive costs up by 1% each. With twenty, thirty or more mandates, costs can be reduced significantly. Why cover birth control pills? Or pregnancy? Neither one is a disease and both should be considered one’s individual responsibility, not something that should be borne by neighbors and friends
- Cover children until they are no longer children, i.e, adults (age 18). There is a time a child must leave a mother’s tit.
- Allow insurers to exclude pre-existing conditions – that will turn “insurance” from an entitlement policy into an insurance policy. As it stands today, “Health Insurance” is a misnomer.
- Address high cost drugs by not covering them or limiting payment. This will have an immediate effect on lowering Rx pricing. Currently drug manufacturers can charge whatever they want to charge since ObamaCare mandates coverage and insurance must pay for it.
These essential changes will solve rising health care costs immediately.
But what about helping people? Are we not a compassionate country?
What socialists don’t understand is that uninsured people will always be around much like people living in poverty. Poverty has always been a constant in history going all the way back to the Romans. Johnson’s Great Society (“We will eliminate poverty in our time!“), for example, has failed after spending trillions of dollars since 1966. This is definitive proof that money can’t buy poverty. Thus we still see people in poverty don’t we?
The reality is if you give everyone in town $100,000 in cash, by the end of the week there will be some richer, and more poorer. Some will have no money at all. It’s the continuing story of human behavior that will never change.
Government has tried eliminating poverty and failed. Health care too will fail under similar government interference.
