Congressman Dr Paul Broun Understands What Health Care Reform Should Be! (The OPTION Act)

Congressman Broun ^ | 10/30/09 | n/a

[eeevil conservative]

The OPTION Act

The Offering Patients True and Individualized Options Now Act

You can follow the links below for information...

Click Here for a summary of bill, and scroll down for the actual bill in PDF...

[eeevil conservative]

PING!

[the long march]

Would have been nice if you had a summary posted instead of just a link

[the long march]

Doesn’t do one of THE MOST IMPORTANT things —— tort reform

and also removal of government madates

[eeevil conservative]

sorry— the summary is in bullet points, etc...and I don’t know all the html codes for that.....and if I post it without those, it would probably hurt your eyes to read it....

just wanted to give people information about real reform and real choices out there that CNN and those folks won’t bother to mention...

[eeevil conservative]

actually it does call fro removing gov’t mandates....and with all due respect, tort reform should be left to the states, and it should be Constitutional.....

but this is the best plan I have seen put forth by anyone...

[the long march]

Tort reform should be part of ANY so called national health ‘reform’ otherwise leave all health care decisions to the states

[eeevil conservative]

you are entitled to your opinion....I like the Constitution....and health care insurance is within the states is how it is now— but fed gov’t regulation prohibits going across state lines....

[the long march]

And that sho7uld be removed ( just another government mandate or prohibition. It is not the only one -—govt mandates many things that increase the cost of care)

[supercat]

I've yet to see any plan which would deal with a fundamental problem with today's system: the only policies available provide only one year worth of payment--if that--if something bad happens. One might hope to renew one's policy after one gets a condition that will be expensive to treat, but at that point it's no longer really insurance.

A real insurance system would have sub-policies for various conditions (e.g. cancer) and provide that if the patient gets cancer which originates during the term of insurance, the policy will provide lifetime treatment for that cancer--subject to various terms and conditions--regardless of whether the patient continues with the policy. The patient's future insurance premiums should not increase, since the expected costs to treat the cancer will be covered by the insurance policy the patient has already paid for, not the policies or renewals he may buy in future.

To be sure, one would have to worry about whether one's insurance company will remain solvent long enough to pay for what may be years of treatments, but if the policy is written to provide for those levels and types of treatment that are available when it is written, it should be possible to predict how much it will cost to treat a cancer patient. From an actuarial standpoint, a patient who gets cancer in a given year would be viewed as a payout equal to the present cash value of expected costs of treatment.

Obviously such a model of insurance would have some difficulties, but I see no other model that would provide real "insurance", rather than cost sharing that's falsely labeled as "insurance". While the immediate payout to someone who develops cancer would be larger than under the present system, that would be offset by the fact that patients with ongoing conditions who renew their policies wouldn't be filing claims for those conditions against their new policies.

A regulatory framework would be required to make such a system work, but it would be far more efficient and fair than the mess we have now.

[bukkdems]

“and with all due respect, tort reform should be left to the states, and it should be Constitutional.....”

Correct, but... if nationwide health insurance is enacted, it is also a big infringement of state’s rights, as the state legislators have rainmakers (mandates for insurance companies) in every drug on the formulary, every association of toenail cutters, etc. A lot of palms would go un-greased.

It is also a farce that HSA patients can “shop” for better prices. What doctor advertises their rates? Not even elective surgery prices are advertised; you have to pay for freaking estimates! Doctors hyper-inflate their bills as S.O.P. and insurance companies cut them down to size. HSA and uninsured get reamed in this system.

Let’s have more Rx drugs go OTC while I’m at it. Mexicans have more rights than U.S. citizens and can at least get effective drugs after consulting with the pharmacist. I don’t know about you but the few drugs that have gone OTC (like Pepsid) have saved me a bunch of doctor visits. Perhaps more OTC drugs would give doctors the time to see the extra patients.