Health care is a serious issue facing the American people. America spends 14% of her GDP, $1.4 trillion on health care. Yet we have 40 million people who are uninsured and can't afford health insurance. We also have a cost-containment problem.
Now to deal with this issue. Lets identify why we have a problem with cost-containment. The reasons health care costs are exploding are the following:
#1. An aging population that needs more health care
#2. A shortage of medical technology
#3. A shortage of trained medical personnel
#4. A shortage of medical facilities
#5. Lack of preventive medicine
Now, the first thing we need to do is establish mandatory medical savings accounts for every citizen. Every citizen will have to contribute 1% of his/her income to a medical savings account and the account can only be used to purchase health insurance or medical and dental care. In addition, every business will be required to have a medical savings account to provide health care for its employees.
The second thing we need to do is to establish a program that will provide health coverage to all uninsured Americans. It will cost $200 billion but that is only 2% of our GDP.
The third thing we need to do is to establish 24-hour aid stations staffed by highly trained paramedics in every community. These aid stations will provide free basic medical care, immunizations, pre--natal care, and medical exams for military service.
The next thing we need to do is to train more doctors, nurses, physical therapists, paramedics, rescue workers, and biomedical engineers. We need to establish health science and medical schools at every university. We need to provide financial aid to those who wish to go back to school to pursue a career in health care. We need to increase the salaries of medical personnel overall.
The next thing we need to do is to establish a National Health Board which will be made up of doctors, health care administrators, economists, and the captains of the health care industry. The NHB will oversee the implementation of Universal Health Coverage, investigate why the cost of health care is rising, and work to see that we have the best health care system in the world.
We also have to increase spending on medical research. We need to have crash research and development programs in nanotechnology, genetic engineering, cures for all diseases, and cybernetic limbs and organs.
Finally, as the number of elderly people in this nation increases, so we must increase the number of people under the age of 50 to support the elderly population and keep our economy going. This will mainly be done through immigration but a revival of large families will also be essential.
Now one look at all this and you will say we can't afford it. First of all, we already spend $1.4 trillion or 14% of our GDP on health care. With reform, we could probably find $200-400 billion in that $1.4 trillion to pay for this. However, even if we have to spend $200 billion more, that will only increase the percentage of our GDP spent on health care from 14% to 16%.
So in conclusion, this is our health care plan. With this plan, we will provide insurance to all, we will reduce the cost of health care, and we will continue to provide the patient's choice of doctor, treatment, and health care plan. This is attainable. We may be the last industrialized nation to implement universal health coverage but we will have the best plan in the world.
Posted by falconistparty
at 1:09 AM EDT