Reforming Healthcare

1. Medicare @ 50 years of age. This would remove higher expense clientele for insurances companies and translate into lower rates for businesses suppling benefits or individuals buying privately. A health tax incentive for 50+ individuals would be implemented. For example, if you didn’t smoke, were the correct weight etc. you’d be given a “number” classification that would reduce your monthly expense. This would encourage these individuals to be healthier and thus be less expensive for the program.

2. Medical Schools and Nursing Schools would be required to double their enrollment. This would greatly increase the number of doctors and nurses and create natural competition and lower fees charged. All to often you need to be related to a doctor or some similar contrivance to get in. Now they would be out recruiting candidates. If the schools did not double enrollment they would lose all public funding, grants, tuition aids or loans, plus be subject to taxing if not taxable.

3. No lawsuit dollar settlements for medical malpractice. Just all expenses deemed medical to correct the error. If the error was egregious neglect then criminal lawsuits with jail time would be the remedy. For instances of normal neglect the doctor would be permanently disbarred. These both would be decided by a judge with medical knowledge but not other doctors. This action would greatly reduce legal expense for the medical community which would translate into lower fees.

4. All businesses with 15 plus employees would be required to supply health insurance benefits to their employees. This would be a much less burdensome requirement since they would only be employees less than 50 years old and rates with the expense taken out of the system would be considerably lower.

5. Drug prices would be dictated not to exceed the lowest price the company sells the drug to any entity or country. Items that would be deemed still unreasonable, like insulin, would be negotiated to an acceptable price or a public production of the drug would be implemented. This would force the company to lower the price or quit distributing the drug.

6. A public option for people under 50 that cannot get or find insurance (similar to current “Obama Care”) would be available to buy

This to me, is good beginning. The goal is to maintain a basic level of civility in our society that recognizes that healthcare is not a privilege but a human right. I'd be interested in your opinions and suggested changes that keep us moving forward to this goal and that are ultimately affordable and reasonable.