Why is health care so expensive? Why does it cost so much more every year?
The health care industry is one of the most highly regulated in the country. These regulations drive up costs enormously. About 80% of the costs of new drugs, for example, are due to regulations that are intended to make them safer. In practice, however, these regulations cause millions of premature deaths by adding 10 years to the drug development time of life-saving drugs and favoring new, expensive drugs over nutrients and older pharmaceuticals with good safety records.
In addition to driving up the costs of drugs, regulations have created a shortage of health care professionals by limiting the number trained each year. When the number of practitioners go down, prices go up. Physicians are more likely to overlook potential treatment options and make major medical mistakes when they put in the long hours generally required of them because of regulation-driven doctor shortages.
Most insured individuals never realize what their true medical costs are. They have little incentive to shop for the physician or pharmacist providing the best value. What they pay is fixed, especially if they have low-deductible insurance policies through their employer. When workers lose their job, they often lose medical coverage because they cannot afford the high COBRA payments their former employer offers. They discover that their “free” health care is actually quite costly and that if they pay for it themselves, they can’t deduct the cost to the extent that their employer can.
Workers with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) fare better than their coworkers when they leave a job. Workers or their employers make tax-deductible contributions to employee HSAs, which grow tax-free. Individuals pay their insurance deductibles from their HSAs and take the account with them when they leave their employer.
HSAs are available to those who have high deductible insurance. Since individuals can eventually use this money for other expenses, they have an incentive to shop for cost-efficient high quality service. Since high deductible policies are less expensive, employers pay less for insurance and employees benefit from the tax benefits and portability.
Clearly, lowering health care spending by doing away with wasteful practices should be at the top of our health care reform list.
Such reforms include:
1. Allowing individuals, as well as businesses, full tax credits/deductions for medical insurance and/or medical expenditures. In the interim, encourage the use of HSAs by increasing the amount of tax-deductible contributions (currently $3000) that a person can make each year.
2. Ending insurance mandates that states impose. As an interim measure, allow insurance sales across state lines so that consumers can choose the insurance plan that best fits their needs, rather than be limited to what state legislatures allow.
3. Making doctors and their insurers liable only for actual negligence and malpractice. In the interim, caps on non-economic damages, such as those in California and Texas, lower insurance costs, but may prevent victims of actual malpractice from being appropriately compensated.
4. Ending the regulation of medical professionals and employing a system of voluntary certification instead. Studies show that certification increases the amount of quality care delivered, especially to the poor. Since practitioners are usually certified on the basis of competence, rather than on politically-correct regulations, their number and quality increases, while prices decrease.
5. Ending FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals and employing a system of third-party certification instead. The FDA doesn’t test any drugs, but simply looks over the data provided by manufacturers. Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL), which certifies electrical appliances, actually tests the products that bear its “Seal of Approval.” Such third-party testing is an excellent model for drug certification.
Each of these measures by itself can decrease health care costs by at least 10%. Taken together, they can slash health care costs by 50% or more. This is true health care reform.
There is no greater deterrent to war than a strong military. We must maintain our stature in the world
There is no greater deterrent to war than a strong military. We must maintain our stature in the world as the strongest nation with no misunderstanding that we bow to no one. We should bring all our troops home from all foreign military entanglements. Our military should be all here. If we are attacked, the retribution should be swift, deadly and so out of proportion that no one would even think about attacking us ever again. Our allies should take more responsibiliy in protecting their own borders and not depend on America.
The Fair Tax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes withan integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a rebate to ensure no American paysfederal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.
- Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
- Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
- Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
- Allows American products to compete fairly
- Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
- Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
- Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
- Abolishes the IRS
Government
Reduce the size immediately. Cut spending. Limit power within the boundaries of the Constitution. Cut spending again. Currently for every dallor California sends to Washinton the state only receives 70 cents in return. My goal if elected would be to reverse this trend get California its fair share and work to keep our tax dollars from being sent to Washington so the states can have control over local projects not the federal governemnt.
Energy
Stop subsidizing ethanol! Drilling here at home to lesson our dependence on foreign oil. Let's quit making those who hate us rich! Let's work with energy companies to develop new technologies.
One has to ask why is this even an issue? This is a must; we're at war. What kind of government allows their country's borders to be left wide open? Seal them now.
Second Amendment
I fully support the second amendment and will fight to keep it in it's current form. H.R. 17: The Citizens' Self-Defense Act of 2009 needs passed immediately.
Repeal Cap and Trade
June 26, 2009 Congress took the United States another step towards socialism. Now more than ever we need to change out Congress and the Senate. This mandate will break the backs of Americans. We can't afford to wait and see.
War on Drugs
Drug prohibition does more to make Americans unsafe than any other factor. Just as alcohol prohibition gave us Al Capone and the mafia, drug prohibition has given us the Crips, the Bloods and drive-by shootings. Consider the historical evidence: America's murder rate rose nearly 70% during alcohol prohibition, but returned to its previous levels after prohibition ended. Now, since the War on Drugs began, America's murder rates have doubled. The cause/effect relationship is clear. Prohibition is putting innocent lives at risk.
What's more, drug prohibition also inflates the cost of drugs, leading users to steal to support their high priced habits. It is estimated that drug addicts commit 25% of all auto thefts, 40% of robberies and assaults, and 50% of burglaries and larcenies. Prohibition puts your property at risk. Finally, nearly one half of all police resources are devoted to stopping drug trafficking, instead of preventing violent crime. Ending drug prohibition would double the resources available for crime prevention, and significantly reduce the number of violent criminals at work in your neighborhood.
(1) the collection and remittance of the sales tax; and
(2) credits and refunds. Allows a monthly sales tax rebate for families meeting certain size and income requirements.Grants states the primary authority for the collection of sales tax revenues and the remittance of such revenues to the Treasury. Sets forth administrative provisions relating to:
(1) the filing of monthly reports and payments of tax;
(2) accounting methods;
(3) registration of sellers of goods and services responsible for reporting sales;
(4) penalties for noncompliance; and
(5) collections, appeals, and taxpayer rights. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to allocate sales tax revenues among:
(1) the general revenue;
(2) the old-age and survivors insurance trust fund;
(3) the disability insurance trust fund;
(4) the hospital insurance trust fund; and
(5) the federal supplementary medical insurance trust fund. Prohibits the funding of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after FY2013. Establishes in the Department of the Treasury:
(1) an Excise Tax Bureau to administer excise taxes not administered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); and
(2) a Sales Tax Bureau to administer the national sales tax. Terminates the sales tax imposed by this Act if the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (authorizing an income tax) is not repealed within seven years after the enactment of this Act.
