Healthcare Reform

Below is my plan for healthcare reform. It may seem too late to mention, but I think it has the largest potential for change without the intrusion that the current bills have in them. All of these ideas and suggestions are to be used together to make it work to positively reduce healthcare costs without major change to the current healthcare system. The basic outcome of my plan would put the ball back in the consumer’s court, giving them the decision making authority as to what happens to them medically and financially, and it would also reduce medical provider’s liability. The key word to my plan is “Menu”.

• Require all medical providers to supply both physical and online menus of services and products.

• Menus would detail the baseline cost of each service and product, just like a restaurant menu.

• Consumers could choose which services they would be willing to pay for and receive.

• The choices made from each menu would be a legally binding contract that would exclude providers from liability if a potentially beneficial or life-saving service is not provided because a patient was unwilling to pay for it, and would allow consumers to choose which services and products they are willing to pay for.

• Baseline fees would be defined as the charged fees and costs for all individual medical services and products prior to any discount, and would be the actual dollar amount that all insurance discounts and negotiated rates would be based upon.

• Exclude medical providers from liability for providing a potentially life-saving service that was not selected by the consumer, however, at the cost of the medical provider.

• The menu system would be an option in the current medical system. The menus use by consumers would not be required; however, it would become widely used due to its popularity.

• Anyone who would chose to not use the menu would continue in the current system.

• A government subsidy could be obtained by medical providers for the cost of initially creating the menus, up to a certain dollar amount.

• All menus for all providers would be accessible to the public to increase competition among providers.

• Providers could update menus once every calendar year, with that date clearly visible on each menu.

Here is what I see happening from this plan. Competition would be increased among medical providers because of the visibility of how much their services cost. The competition would lower baseline prices. In turn, consumers would know ahead of time how much money a medical service or product would cost them depending on their insurance plan. Medical choices would be more in the hands of each individual consumer. Medical providers would not be inclined to prescribe unnecessary services or procedures just for liability protection. Then medical providers would see a reduction in lawsuits and liability costs because of the legally binding menu contracts. Insurance costs should go down across the board because consumers would be choosing to use fewer services.

For myself, I would just love to know ahead of time how much I am going to be charged for medical services and to be in control of my own money when it comes to healthcare. Also, I would love for people to leave a comment on my blog telling me what they think would work best to reduce healthcare costs.


--Johnie