1. Elimination of lawsuits against doctors and other medical providers. There would be a general fund to compensate victims of malpractice for actual damage and a non-inbred system for weeding out those guilty of malpractice.
2. Elimination of the artificial exclusivity of the medical system. In other words our medical schools could easily produce two or three times the number of doctors they do with no noticeable drop off in quality.
3. Elimination of the various games which drive the cost of medicines towards unaffordability.
4. Elimination of the outmoded WW-II notion of triage in favor of a system which took some rational account of who pays for the system and who doesn't. The horror stories I keep reading about the middle-class guy with an injured child having to fill out forms for three hours while an endless procession of illegal immigrants just walks in and are seen, would end, as would any possibility of that child waiting three hours for treatment while people were being seen for heroin overdoses.
All of those things would fall under the heading of what TR called "trust busting". There would also be some system for caring the truly indigent, but the need and cost would be far less than at present.
These stories are not myths. Fortunately, neither time nor insurance were a factor when I experienced them with my kid (an hour's wait before sewing didn't change anything except harden my attitude about illegals).
I dont' know just where you heard about filling out forms for 3 hrs, sorry it done not happen, if you have any type of insurance you give them your info and hand over the card.
you might have to wait 3 hrs to be treated, but not spend 3 hrs filling out forms
I don’t think your reforms are the best. I think the best the government can do for health care would be:
1. Portability
2. Pre-existing conditions MUST be covered with some form of plan (it can cost more)
3. Free interstate insurance sales allowed
4. Cap on medical malpractice damages (having the ability to sue keeps our health care top notch - I lived in another country for 10 years - trust me on this one!)
Really, more free market in the health insurance world would be better than less. Certainly a lot better than the 1000+ page monstrosity of control Obama wrought.