Healthcare Reform
A Collection of Resources for a Conservative Approach to Healthcare Reform
New Health Care Reform Website and Health Care Reform Update (7-1-2010)
- www.healthcare.gov - This website provides education about your healthcare options in your state, depending upon your specific healthcare needs. July 1st,2010 was a big day for implementation of some of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Actýs most immediate provisions. The Department of Health and Human Services unveiled its new consumer Web portal, www.healthcare.gov, a number of states and the federal government began accepting applications for new programs to cover previously uninsured individuals with serious medical conditions, and a new tax on indoor tanning services went into effect.
Is Healthcare a Privilege or a Right?
- Is Healthcare a Right? - This link leads you to a video of a speech made by Dr. Leonard Piekoff, philosopher and lecturer. He discusses the concept of healthcare as a right as well as the moral implications of defining healthcare as a right. This video was taken during the time of the Clinton Health Care Reform Proposals, however, the message and the circumstances are identical to the discussions about healthcare reform that we are in the midst of today. It is a must see video that will clearly answer the question, "Is HealthCare a Right?" The video is about 20 minutes long, and one really needs to watch the entire presentation to get a good understanding of the speaker's conclusions.
- The Business of Healthcare
What's in The Bill? - The Politics of Health Care Reform
- Plain English Version of Health Care Reform Changes - 2010 through 2014
- Timeline of Health Care Bill Changes. Final Copy Updated as of 3-25-2010.
- Updated CBO Cost Estimates as of 3-11-2010 -
The Congressional Budget Office released an updated cost estimate of the amount that H.R. 3590, the Senate-passed version of comprehensive health reform legislation, would cost the federal government. The new $875 billion score reflects the changes made to H.R. 3590 in late December, known as the Managerýs Amendment, to the bill. It also changes the potential enactment date to mid-2010, rather than 2009, and makes some changes based on technical methodology corrections and changes to existing law that have occurred between December 2009 and now, such as the temporary delay in scheduled cuts to Medicare providers.
The new score indicates that the revised bill will contain less deficit-reduction than the original version of the bill: $118 billion versus $132 billion. In addition, the new CBO score indicates that the bill's overall savings of $118 billion does not exceed the combined new revenue to be generated by the Social Security Program and the new CLASS Act provisions (monies generated by collected premiums before the program has to pay out any claims). The revenue generated over 10 years for these two programs is $122.2 billion. If the revenues collected from this program are used to actually fund those programs rather than raided to pay for the new subsidies and Medicaid expansion created by the bill, then H.R. 3590 actually would increase the deficit, since these revenues cannot be double-counted. Section 1563 of H.R. 3590 includes a sense of the Senate language that the revenues collected for Social Security and the CLASS Act be dedicated to the funding of those two programs and not be used to fund other programs in the bill. While that legislative intent is not binding, it does reflect awareness on the part of lawmakers that the revenue can only be used once, even if it eliminates the deficit neutrality of the measure.
The CBO estimate released yesterday also does not include the cost of discretionary appropriations that would be necessary to implement the provisions of H.R. 3590, although the CBO predicts that such costs could be upwards of $90 billion over 10 years.
Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee have estimated that these costs would add an additional $100 billion in federal spending over 10 years.
- Analysis of the Major Provisions in the Manager's Amendment to H.R.3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 - December 19, 2009
- Side-by-Side Comparison of House and Senate Bills
- Simplified Comparison of House and Senate Bills
- Specific Concerns About the Existing Bill That Need to be Taken into Consideration
- Timeline of Tax Changes in the Health Care Bills
- What will be the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - on healthcare costs in the individual and small-employer health insurance markets?
- President Obama's NEW Health Care Proposal - February, 22 2010 - As an American, it is your responsiblity to stay on top of the issues and let your legislators know how you feel about them. Make sure to educate yourself about President Obama's New Health Care Proposal. What do you think will be the ultimate impact of granting the Federal Government the power to regulate health insurance premiums? Left without the ability to adjust health insurance premiums based upon the actual cost of health CARE, insurance companies will have to cut doctor and hospital reimbursement rates in order to cover costs and retain profitability. Ultimately, this will result in the same unintended consequence that occurs with public health insurance and single-payer systems: A reduction in the quality of your care.
- Tell Your Legislators How You Feel About Health Care Reform - Use this link to find your legislators and tell them how you feel about today's healthcare reform proposals.
What Can be Done to Contain Healthcare Costs?
- Why are Health Care Costs Rising? - In order to determine what needs to be done to contain healthcare costs, we must first examine the reasons why healthcare costs are rising. This document provides some insight as to why healthcare costs are rising.
- A History of Health Insurance and Health Care Costs - We must also examine the history of healthcare and healthcare costs in order to determine what events in history led to rapid healthcare inflation. This document goes into great depths to describe the history of health care in the USA and the factors that have fueled healthcare inflation.
- Containing Healthcare Costs
- 10 Ways to Real Health Care Reform
- Information About Medical Liability and Tort Reform
- Medical Malpractice - A Better Solution - This document outlines creative, alternative solutions to lower healthcare costs related to medical malpractice.
- What Would Happen if We Could Buy Health Insurance Across State Lines?
- State of Georgia Takes the Lead in Interstate Insurance Laws
- President Obama's Cousin, Dr. Milton R. Wolf, a Kansas radiologist, opposes ObamaCare and Makes Suggestions for alternative solutions to health care reform.
- Creating Well Workplaces
- Saftey Nets for Low-Income Individuals and Families - Many people who are uninsured are unaware of EXISTING safety net programs available to them. This link will take you to a webpage where you will find information about safety net programs that are already available to low-income individuals and families.
- Health Status Insurance - Health Status Insurance is insurance that protects you from rising health insurance costs in the long-run. Read more about what health status insurance is and what would need to happen in order for health status insurance to exist as a marketable product in our country.
- Bring Competition Back to the HealthCare Marketplace - As consumers become more price conscious (due to increased cost-sharing on health insurance plans), they are forced to spend their deductible dollars more wisely. The market is capitalizing on this need for price transparency, and New Choice Health is one of the first companies to provide FREE tools to help consumers "shop" for their healthcare. Competition holds healthcare providers accountable for keeping their prices affordable.
- Bring Price Transparency into the Marketplace - This video, by John Stossel, goes along with the above mentioned link. A combination of proper use of health insurance (purchase high deductible health insurance to use ONLY for catastrophic claims) AND the use of services like those provided by New Choice Health, we as consumers can have a major impact on the cost of healthcare in our country. But as consumers, we need to be asking our government to help us improve health insurance law to allow for the market to become a force for controlling healthcare costs!
- 10 Small-Scale Reforms for Pre-Existing Conditions - This document explains how we can solve the problem of "pre-existing" conditions using a common-sense, conservative approach that doesn't break the bank.
- Walk-In Clinics - This is the Walmart Walk-In Clinic website. It describes all of the locations where these clinics exist and how you can save money by using a walk-in clinic. Prices for services are clearly posted at each clinic.
- Direct-Pay Surgery Centers - Direct Pay surgery centers are becoming very popular for those willing to travel abroad for surgery. However, there are a few surgery centers right here in the USA that already provide direct pay services at greatly reduced rates. Full pricing for surgeon's fees, surgical center fees, anesthesiology, diagnostics, and consulations are quoted PRIOR to services being rendered so that you, as a consumer, can make an informed decision about your elective surgery. These surgery centers actually COMPETE for your business, thus competitive pricing is the result. The key to reduced healthcare pricing is the LACK of third party payers, the true solution to our healthcare woes! Watch this video to learn more! High deductible, indemnity (no-network) insurance plans could work well as a supplement to these kinds of services to protect yourself from financial losses above your affordability threshold. As it stands today, we don't have a market for indemnity health insurance plans. Healthcare costs are so high, the only way to get much benefit out of an insurance plan is to buy into a network. We need to get away from this mentality and adopt systems that would work better to encourage more price competition among health care providers.
What are the Healthcare Systems Like in Other Countries?
Healthcare Systems Around the World - This is a detailed document written by the Cato Institute which describes specific information about the healthcare systems of many different countries that have Universal Healthcare Systems.
The Cuban Health Care System - The Real Cuba
Who are the Uninsured in America?
- An Analysis of the Uninsured - This study, made by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), provides an analysis of America's uninsured population, their characteristics and their health. It is imperative for legislators to take into consideration this information prior to implementing reform.
- Who are the uninsured? - Pie Chart
- Uninsured in America - Video
Do Private Health Insurance Companies Take Excessive Profits?
Medical Bankruptcy
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Medical Debt: Is Our Healthcare System Bankrupting Americans? - This speech examines the findings of Himmelstein et al 2005 AND 2009 studies and concludes that these studies SEVERELY overstimate the number of medical bankruptcies and that "other factors, such as the financial benefit from a bankruptcy filing or other types of debt, such as large credit card debts, are more important predictors of bankruptcy filings". The writer acknowledges: " I do not wish to underestimate the serious effects of medical problems on particular families. Rising health care costs are clearly an area of growing concern, and there is an urgent need to tackle the issue. At the same time, we should recognize that families are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy for a multitude of reasons. While some recent reports, based on thinner evidence and less robust methods, would have us believe that rising health care costs are in fact the main factor responsible for household bankruptcies, I hope my testimony has provided a more substantial basis for concluding that this is not the case."
Healthcare and Consumerism
The Ranking of the US Healthcare System as Compared to Other Countries
- The World Health Organization's (WHOs) Problematic Ranking of Healthcare Systems - This document dissects the WHOs rankings of healthcare systems around the world and how they were computed. The document concludes: "The WHO rankings themselves have a strong ideological component. They include factors that are arguably unrelated to actual health performance and some that could even improve in response to worse health performance. Even setting those concerns aside, the rankings are still highly sensitive to both measurement error and assumptions about the relative importance of the components. And finally, the WHO rankings reflect implicit value judgments and lifestyle references that differ among individuals and across countries. The WHO health care ranking system does not escape ideology. On the contrary, it advances ideological assumptions under the guise of objectivity. Those interested in objective measures of health system performance should look elsewhere."
- Commonwealth Ranking - Are We Really 19th out of 19? (By Linda Gorman)
The History of Health Insurance in the USA
- Moral vs. Universal Healthcare - This document describes the history of the USA Healthcare system, it's evolution, and the writer's opinions about how attempts to add regulation to our healthcare system have contributed to its failures.
- The History of Health Insurance and Healthcare Costs in the USA - This is a lengthy article written by Linda Gorman, healthcare policy center director for the Independence Insitute. Linda goes into great detail about the history of the healthcare system in the USA and its evolution. She concludes the document by describing how consumer-driven healthcare could resolve some of the problems within our existing healthcare system.
Medicare
Proponents of Responsible Healthcare Reform
Canadian Healthcare - The Unintended Consequences of Single-Payer Health Care
Why Don't Conservatives Want to Have a Public Option?
Is Public Health Insurance Administratively More Efficient than Private Health Insurance?
Quality of USA Healthcare System as Compared to Other Countries
Mandatory Health Insurance - Implications
- Mandatory Insurance: Wrong for Massachusettes and Wrong for America - This document explains how mandatory insurance results in higher costs due to the necessity for the government to define an "acceptable insurance plan" and the power of special interest groups to manipulate their "pet coverages" into any minimum level of coverage that the government defines as "acceptable".
Informational Websites
The Pricing of US Hospital Services: Chaos Behind a Veil of Secrecy
The Pricing of Hospital Services - Powerpoint Presentation
The Free Market is Not Another Form of Rationing! - This document describes the author's opinion as he explains why proponents of "universal healthcare" are not morally superior to those who are proponents of free market healthcare.
We Stand Firm Blog - This is a blog that is written and updated daily by a Colorado physician.
AAPS - Healthcare Reform Mythbusters
Stumbling on Truth - Health Care Mythology - This comical documents depicts the writer's opinions about common arguments in favor of universalized healthcare.
The Surgery Center of Oklahoma has solved the problem of excessive healthcare inflation by eliminating third party payors from contracting with the facility. Consumerism and competition for healthcare keep the cost of healthcare at this facility in check. In fact, the Surgery Center of Oklahoma PUBLISHES its surgery rates right online. Watch Dr. Keith Smith's video appearance as he speaks about how the elimination of third party payers has resulted in lower healthcare costs in his facility as well as surrounding facilities in his area. The success of this facility makes a strong case for high deductible, indemnity-style (no-network) health insurance, with emphasis on coverage only for catastrophic costs.
Canadian Company begins REAL USA Healthcare Reform - Mr. Rick Baker of Timely Medical Alternatives, a Canadian based company that assists Canadians who are on waiting lists for healthcare to receive timely medical care, has opened North American Surgery to help Americans locate affordable healthcare alternatives. Visit "Affordable Surgery in the USA" for more affordable healthcare alternatives.
UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization
Arizona Mayo Clinic to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients - This is a prime example of how Public Health Insurance eventually leads to rationing and reduction in overall quality of healthcare.
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