First order of business is to reform the FDA, the American Medical Association, government funded research, and role of insurance companies and medical networks to stop them from having the power to dictate patient care based on anything other than what is best for the patient (i.e. FDA employees becoming highly paid executives at pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and health care networks denying procedures or medications regardless of a physician’s recommendation, funding of certain treatments and /or medications that in turn misinform physicians and patients or cancel other potential treatments and/or medications, etc.) We must restore our trust in our physicians and educate them correctly because it should be those physicians, not corporate suits or government bureaucrats, responsible for healthcare.
Secondly, I have never understood why it should be an employer’s responsibility to provide healthcare plans. Healthcare plans greatly vary, and the availability of plans should not be predetermined by what a certain employer is able to offer based on factors not in control of the consumer.
Currently, health insurance group members can be either a few local members in a small company to thousands of members from all over the country. Instead, I propose that one’s “group” be that of primary care providers. This would allow patients to select primary providers, ensure that referrals for x-rays, specialists, etc. will be covered inside one’s network, keep groups similar in size enabling plans to be similar in benefits and cost throughout economic regions regardless of who one is employed. Additionally, this system would place health care professionals with the responsibility of negotiating with insurance companies instead of corporate human resource executives, and would make health insurance immediately available to people without one having to wait until they complete an “introductory period” of employment before health insurance coverage is offered.
This kind of arrangement would require open enrollment throughout the year, and somehow make it possible to transfer their coverage to another primary provider in the event of one moving to a different area.
I understand that this change would face some challenges to implement, but I also think it would be a relatively simple way to transition healthcare into a system that would be overall more efficient and ultimately more beneficial to all.