A FRAMEWORK FOR HEALTHCARE REFORM
The Job Creators Network Foundation and Physicians for Reform have conducted the largest market research healthcare study involving more than 30,000 American voters. We’ve developed a framework for healthcare reform from those inputs that will repair, restore and improve the patient doctor relationship, remove DC bureaucrats and politicians from the exam room and increase choice and competition.
Protect those with pre-existing conditions.
- Allowing employees to use tax free dollars to buy their own health insurance helps prevent a lapse in coverage when changing jobs and addresses some of the problems of pre-existing conditions.
- There are still some Americans who do not have health insurance but have a medical condition. Giving states the authority to regulate and create a vibrant insurance market will drive down costs for most patients. Letting states develop their own Guaranteed Coverage Pools will protect patients with true pre-existing conditions.
Lower insurance premiums through increased choice and price transparency.
- In every industry that has choice and competition, there are lower prices and more innovations. Healthcare is no exception.
- Regulations such as those that prevent short-term and association health plans from thriving, as well as the essential health benefits on Obamacare plans drive costs up.
- Allowing states to create a vibrant insurance market where individuals can purchase what they need in an insurance plan—from a catastrophic plan to a Cadillac plan—will generate choice and competition that will drive costs down for everyone.
Expand Personal Health Management Accounts to give patients more control over their healthcare dollars.
- Increasing the maximum contribution to PHMAs allows employers to contribute tax-free dollars directly to employees, getting business owners out of the insurance business. These plans will also be portable—similar to life and auto insurance—so employees can take it with them from job to job.
- This allows employees to use pre-tax dollars to pay for the healthcare they need, save the excess for future healthcare and gives them the same tax benefits enjoyed by large corporations.
- Currently, only people with certain types of high-deductible insurance plans can access PHMAs. Given the power of controlling your own healthcare dollars, every American should have access to a PHMA no matter what insurance plan they choose.
Expand Direct Medical Care to increase choices and lower costs.
- Expanding PHMAs will give patients greater access to direct medical care which offers families all their primary medical care needs for one low monthly membership fee—no insurance or middlemen necessary.
- Patients can get access to their regular doctors at any time through call, text, or telemedicine.
- For other medical expenses – such as surgical centers, labs and imaging centers – direct medical care means transparent cash prices. This allows patients to price shop, lowering costs.
- Cash prices are often cheaper than what insurers can offer. According to Vanderbilt economist Larry Van Horn, cash healthcare prices are nearly 40 percent lower than insurers’ negotiated rates.
Put patients in charge by removing barriers that separate them from their doctors.
- Electronic Health Record (EHR) regulations require doctors to spend about half of their time on paperwork and data entry instead of patient care. Physicians are now serving as data entry clerks. Even more, this data is used to monitor both patient and physician behavior.
- Red tape and regulations are driving physicians out of private practice. Fifty-three percent of doctors are now payroll physicians employed by hospitals. Those doctors are beholden to their employers—the hospital—and not their patients.
Lower drug prices.
- Right now, tens of billions of dollars go to middlemen annually that should be returned to patients in the form of lower costs for drugs and medical devices.
- Repeal the legislation that exempts these middlemen from penalty for violating federal anti-kickback law.
- Nearly all the recent increases in drug list prices can be chalked up to rising rebates.
Reduce defensive medicine to remove costs from the system.
- Physicians often order every conceivable test to protect themselves against possible lawsuits—increasing costs by tens of billions of dollars without necessarily raising the quality of care.
- Limiting physicians’ malpractice exposure will control these costs, resulting in lower costs for patients.
