Health Care Reform in the Coming Four Years
America has, admittedly a big problem with regards to the sheer amount of people who do not have health insurance. This is a major problem which has to be resolved. Barack Obama and Democrats in general have plans to insure these people, which is very important and, in general, a good thing.
However, while reforming their health care system Americans would be wise to keep as much good from the old system as they can. Lest they forget, the American health care system is also the main source of health innovation in the world. The high level of competition and the free market system in the health care system encourage innovation and improvement in treatments and technologies, not developed in other parts of the world.
If Democrats take control of Congress, with possibly as much as 57 or even 60 Senators in combination with a large majority in the House of Representatives, they are likely to ignore this side of the current American health care system, and to focus completely on trying to insure every single American. This could cause problems in the coming years, for radical change in the health care system may very well destroy its innovation ability.
If Americans want to create a new health care system, that covers more people than it currently does, but that remains competitive with the rest of the world and, above all else, innovative, they will would be wise to force Democrats in the coming years to take conservative complaints serious. If Democrats win as many seats in Congress as most expect, they will not feel forced to do so, and they will be likely to destroy not only the weaknesses of the current health care system, but also its strengths.
That would be devastating both for the U.S. itself and for the rest of the world, which relies heavily on American innovations in this field.
What neither party seems willing to do and is an absolute must for reducing health care costs is taking on the AMA. The AMA has put a strangle hold on the number of medical schools and therefor the number of physicians. The licensing of med schools needs to be removed from their hands and the number of schools needs to be radically increased. It is absolutely ridiculous that a B in freshman comp or other courses unrelated to the profession can keep someone from becoming a physician.
The role of nurses at all levels needs to be expanded as well.
The cost of a new accreditation board for doctors and med schools would be trivial in relation to how much this would save under any of the proposed health plans.