Principles for Real Health Care Reform
Freedom of Choice for Patients and Doctors
- Protect Privacy – no release of medical records without patient permission. HIPAA needs to be changed so it truly protects patient privacy instead of enabling insurance and government access.
- Enable personal control and encourage personal responsibility by allowing unencumbered choice of payment arrangements, e.g. HSA/HDHP, balance billing, individualized insurance contracts
- Release entrepreneurial creativity and innovation by removing regulatory obstacles and burdens to the creation of new medical treatments, business models and delivery systems.
Voluntary Solutions to Cost, Quality and Access
- Tax equality for all medical expenditures
- Dismantle tax code preference for employment‐based health insurance
- Increase portability, ownership and control of health insurance
- Freedom of Contract for medical care and insurance
- Repeal laws containing insurance benefit mandates to increase freedom of choice and improve affordability
- Focus government action on defining and prosecuting fraud.
- Medicare beneficiaries must regain the freedom to privately negotiate prices and payments.
- Financially accountable patients will demand price transparency and make decisions based on personal priorities and values.
- Competition on price is essential to improving affordability and quality.
Defined Contributions for Medicare/Medicaid
- Public program status quo is fiscally unsustainable.
- Entitlements to current and near‐eligible Medicare beneficiaries must be preserved.
- Institute per capita subsidies (defined contribution) for all public programs to end the unlimited taxpayer liability which occurs under current defined benefit programs.
- Public liability for Medicare must be limited and clearly defined while providing adequate time for younger citizens to plan and save for their future medical expenditures.
- Medicaid must be returned to a true safety net program which assists the poor while maximizing personal responsibility and control. This could be accomplished through subsidized catastrophic coverage and HSAs.
State‐based Medical Liability Reform
- Insurance regulation, including malpractice insurance, is constitutionally a function of the states. Federal involvement should be advisory, at most