The Simpson health care plan

James Simpson
Published: October 9, 2008

As I mentioned last week, my individual health insurance plan costs me almost $900 per month. This is due to the fact that the company I work for doesn’t provide health care, and I have two pre-existing
conditions: high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. While my diabetes is diet controlled, and I only take one medication to keep my blood pressure in check, once you have been diagnosed with these
conditions you are forever branded as “uninsurable.”

If it weren’t for the Cobra and HIPPA Acts, the insurance underwriters would have denied my application. Some may find it interesting that I still support the free-market. I firmly believe that if the health
care industry were deregulated, and certain legislation drafted to protect various sectors of the medical and health care industries, even those of us with pre-existing conditions would have access to
affordable health insurance. Currently the system is being crushed under the weight of frivolous lawsuits and overwhelming regulations.

Unfortunately, expecting a bunch of lawyers to create legislation that might actually limit their cronies from raping doctors and insurance companies is similar to expecting CEO’s to tie their salaries and
bonuses to the success of the companies they run. Never gonna happen.

I am not going to analyze the specific plans as I don’t have the space to do so in this column. (If time permits, I will create a breakdown of the presidential candidates’ proposals on my Web site and let
you know the address in the byline of my next column.)

For today, I thought, why not put together my own plan for reforming the health insurance industry and encourage readers to write my name in for president!

So here goes ... If elected I will:

•  Immediately insist Congress put forward tort-reform legislation. Until legitimate tort-reform legislation is introduced and passed, I would veto every bill that got to my desk … including budgets and
emergency spending bills.

• Demand Congress put forward legislation to allow private organizations and associations access to health care plans, similar to those available to corporations.

• Require changes in FDA regulations that limit access to potentially life saving drugs from individuals with deadly diseases due to minimum testing periods of 10 years or better. And I would demand
significant changes in this analysis phase when the drugs have a known track records in other countries of Europe.

• Force insurance companies, doctors and hospitals to provide patient documents that clearly break down the costs for treatments and services.

Sorry … have to go into a little more detail on that one. The fact is, most people aren’t aware of how much is charged to insurance companies for certain items or services. Try and find out how much a
hospital or doctor’s office is going to charge for an aspirin and you are looked at like someone who is clinically insane. Hidden charges like these would not work if the free market were allowed to prevail
in our system. Incentives should be created that encourage individuals to shop for the best care at the best price. Far more transparency is needed in the entire health care system.

I would also find a way to encourage more information be made available about doctors and their backgrounds. There are some private Web sites that are working toward this effort, but there are still too
many doctors with questionable backgrounds that are able to hide their history. The settlement, out of court, for millions of dollars that demands the victim remain silent is immoral and unacceptable. If an
individual is guilty of malpractice, then the public has a right to know. Proper tort reform would prevent doctors and insurance companies from settling out of fear they may lose a battle based upon a
frivolous lawsuit. Therefore, when a legitimate accusation is made and a doctor or hospital is found guilty, the harmed party is rightly compensated and the rest of the public can be made aware of such
critical information.

It should be pointed out that both of the presidential candidate’s plans lack detailed information about how they will be financed. There are a couple of general suggestions, but nothing specific. While I am
not an economics expert, I do know this … most of the proposals put forward are going to carry considerable costs. These are going to be distributed, in typical socialist style, to all taxpayers. And I see
no way these can be carried out without increasing the average American’s tax burden, which is something no one can afford.

James Simpson lives in Lake Ridge. His email address is .