Barack Obama’s Cowardly Foreign Policy

by Floyd and Mary Beth Brownin
TownHall.com (http://TownHall.com)

Why don’t we consider three areas that we can improve NOW?

1. Eliminate Legal Incentives for Malpractice Suits. “Defensive” medicine is a costly problem in our health care system.  Doctors and other practitioners order many unnecessary tests and procedures to protect themselves from law suits instituted by greedy plaintiffs and unscrupulous attorneys. Trial lawyers love the current system because it is a cash cow, allowing them to take up to 40% of a settlement as their fee.  While experts disagree on how much the medical system will benefit from a more benign malpractice environment, most believable studies predict a 5-8% savings (WSJ Article), with some speculating that up to 20% could be saved.  With health care spending in 2009 estimated to be $2.5 trillion, an 8% reduction would be $200 billion.  That’s a big savings for changing a few laws, with no cost involved.
2. Streamline Federal Programs. Just take the fat out!  Congress needs to examine the current body of laws, and make changes to streamline the system, eliminating duplication, trimming bureaucracies, and eliminating government waste within the system.  Every large organization needs to take a good look at itself every few years to make sure it is accomplishing its goals at the least possible cost.  The federal government is no exception.  How much would we save?  It’s difficult to say, but it would be surprising if Congress couldn’t cut at least 2%, or $50 billion in health care costs through streamlining efforts.
3. Reduce Fraud in Federal Health Programs. Some estimates claim that fraud accounts for up to $100 billion (CNN Money) in costs within government health care systems, primarily Medicare and Medicaid.  It seems logical that our government, with all its law enforcement capabilities could do a little better with the money we’ve entrusted to it.  It’s particularly disheartening to realize that the new health bill may authorize hiring thousands of new IRS Agents to ensure law-abiding Americans are buying health insurance or paying a fine (National Review).  Wouldn’t it make more sense to devote those resources to discourage stealing from the current system?  If we spent $200 million each year (much less than 1% of the amount lost) to increase law enforcement activities applied to health care fraud, could we eliminate at least half of the fraud?  That would be another $50 billion saved, and the system would work more efficiently without all the extra load associated with fraud.

So, if we saved $300 billion, what could we do with it?  Well, for starters, we could buy health care for 37,500,000 people.  That’s assuming an average health care cost of $8,000 per person, which is slightly higher than the national average.

But wait, 37,500,000 is almost ALL the people in the US who don’t have health insurance, isn’t it?  Could it be that we can save our way to providing health care for everyone?  What would happen if we could realize larger savings from streamlining, or eliminate more than 50% of fraud?  We MIGHT be able to provide a medical safety net for everyone!  That’s not to argue that government should be providing free health care, but the possibilities stagger the mind…

Perhaps Congress should be considering these three improvements to our current system, instead of making plans to spend over a trillion dollars to implement unproven reforms.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28849.html