Improve our Health Care System & Provide Quality Care for Everyone
Today’s conversation about health care is centered on insurance, but that discussion misses the forest for the trees. Health care should be about patients, not insurance, specifically in 2 ways: keeping patients healthy and treating patients who are not. Somehow our system has stripped the patient’s right to decide how they want to be treated. We must turn our focus on empowering individuals to get the best health care for them.
Medicare for All is just another term for socialized medicine and is an economic and health care disaster that will remove all choice, eliminate employer-based health insurance and bankrupt our society. Joe Biden has said socialized medicine will cost more than $30 trillion and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth have agreed!
Every American deserves high quality health care, but a one-size-fits-all health care system run by government bureaucrats is not the answer. It will cost too much and certainly won’t be high quality. It’s a huge part of the Socialist Agenda and is not the answer to our health care problems.
Obamacare has raised the cost of care and eliminated access to doctors of our choosing. For Americans with pre-existing conditions, Obamacare does not allow patients in the individual market to go to Treatment Centers of Excellence, like Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas or MD Anderson in Houston. Congress needs to allow specialty doctors or medical centers to treat patients with chronic diseases in the individual market. This will increase patients’ choice, access to higher quality health care, and competition among the best treatment facilities across the nation.
Many Americans in the individual health care market are forced into high cost, high deductible plans that offer nothing more than emergency coverage if something tragic happens. Yet they are spending upwards of 15-20% of their annual income on health care they don’t ever see any benefit from. The average cost of employer-based coverage has risen to more the $20,000/year, leading many employers to drop coverage and force more people into the individual market.
Access to health care and the high cost of prescription drugs are a huge concern for many Americans. The high cost of prescription drugs is an issue that affects everyone and te cost of medicine is not only hurting consumers but also our overall economy. We can lower out-of-pocket costs for patients by increasing the number of generic drugs entering the market and preventing drug manufacturers from gaming the system to stifle competition.
It’s time for Congress to find new ways to deliver affordable health care for everyone. With the access and availability to primary care physicians constantly decreasing, our first step is to embrace Telemedicine – being able to talk to your doctor via email, phone, Skype, Facetime, etc. – for certain types of minor treatment. Half of Emergency Room visits aren’t actually necessary and up to one third of doctor visits could actually be in the patient’s home. Telemedicine is a great first step to advise patients on the next steps in their care, how to get better and also reduce health care costs for all Americans.
My Plan for Quality, Accessible and Sustainable Health Care:
■ Stop Socialized Medicine!!!
■ Preserve protections for those with pre-existing conditions
■ President Trump has been trying to work with Congress to lower the cost of prescription drugs, but Democrats in Congress like Colin Allred continue to play political games. We must lower the cost of prescription drugs by increasing the number of generic drugs on the market and look into how we can keep the drug manufacturers honest by ensuring fair competition and negotiation.
■ Expand the use and limits of Health Savings Accounts. The ability to save money, tax free, specifically for health care related spending can be a game changer. Congress has played politics with this issue for too long and it’s time to get real and expand this program.
■ Educate consumers to increase the use of telemedicine while making sure that there are protections to ensure the quality of care. This will provide around-the-clock access to a personal physician, greatly improve the quality and timeliness of care and save you money
■ Give everyone access to centers of excellence like Southwestern Medical Center, MD Anderson and Cancer Centers of America that specialize in chronic health conditions (including pre-existing conditions).
■ Follow Texas’ lead and reform Medical Malpractice laws to protect both patients and doctors. This will reduce the cost of care and also reduce the amount of unnecessary “preventative prescriptions” that are prescribed.
■ Empower American ingenuity through grants and other means to solve our health care problems through technology and new, free enterprise ideas.