Dr. No { Ch. 3 }

2/26/2014

Dr. No { Ch. 3 }

By Paul Stanner
Over the Thanksgiving Holiday of last year I had the unfortunate luck to suffer a very unpleasant in all possible ways life threatening episode as chronicled in my story " Paul Stanner 1 Grim Reaper 0 " I've also had the unpleasant experiences of dealing with America's current health system as chronicled in my stories " Dr. No { Ch. 1 } " and " Dr. No { Ch. 2 } " and by means of my thirty years of experience working in our health care system. As a result of my experience of this hospitalization and because it's the law whether I or anybody else likes it or not I was forced to sign up for Obamacare. My insurance became effective Feb. 1 , 2014. I have one of the better plans and am generally happy with it. It is not however a perfect solution to my health care needs. The vast majority of the promises Obama made concerning health care are outright lies in my experience with it so far. I am not surprised by this fact as I'm sure the vast majority of you aren't and won't be .

Around Feb. 10 of this year I needed to get more insulin and the strips required to check my blood sugar. Being a wise consumer and knowledgeable patient I had my Doctor write me out a prescription for the best strips and for Novolin insulin. Not wishing to take unfair advantage of the system and recently having found out that Novolin insulin was the cheapest insulin available and yet every bit as effective as the others I thought I was doing the right thing to order that brand. It also happens to last half again as long as the other brand for the same amount and is $ 3.00 cheaper for the same amount. I went to Walmart to fill these prescriptions. Friends whoever said " No good deed goes unpunished " certainly knew what he / she was talking about. I was informed by Walmart that neither of these necessities to treat my disease were covered by my insurance. Since I needed these meds that very day I had no choice but to pay for them out of pocket. I shelled out $ 200.00 from my monthly S.S. payment for things that the insurance company should have covered. Friends I can assure that virtually nobody on S.S. can afford to expend that kind of money for these or any other necessary meds to maintain their health. Worse yet two weeks after paying the money and fighting with the insurance company about reimbursing me the money I laid out for these meds since they said it was a Walmart mistake I was informed that due to a minor technicality not only would I not be reimbursed but the money I paid out of pocket would also not count towards my $ 500.00 yearly deductible. I will no longer feel guilty about taking unfair advantage of the system. In the future I'm going to get what I need to treat my disease and maintain my health the cheapest way possible. This unseemly episode got me to thinking that with my experiences as a patient and my experience working in health care for thirty years I could reform the healthcare system so that it actually works for the people it is intended to wok for ---- the patients. My StannerCare proposal follows below.

Every legal American citizen will pay $ 30.00 per month per individual family member. Everything will be covered with no deductibles , no co-insurance and no co-pays. Yes I said everything. That means dental care including dental implants , eye care , preventive medicine , catastrophic illness , OB GYN , chiropractic , Chinese traditional medicine , massage where medically prescribed ---- EVERYTHING !! Insurance companies will not be allowed to deny anybody based on pre - existing conditions. All Doctors will be required to accept this insurance and will be paid a REASONABLE amount for their services which will be decided based upon their costs of doing business and a reasonable profit above that amount. Doctors will not be allowed to set these fees themselves. Should any Doctor refuse to accept this insurance or treat patients with this insurance any differently than anybody else his / her license will be canceled. I'm sure they'll find new careers in the food service industry. Concierge medicine practices will be outlawed. No hospital , clinic , or pharmacy will be allowed to refuse this insurance either. Their fees will be set based upon the same criteria as the Doctor's fees are set. Should they refuse their businesses will be nationalized and sold to private firms that can and will cooperate and make money in this new more efficient system. All drugs will be generic unless a compelling medical reason can be demonstrated . We will trust that the Doctor will behave appropriately in these matters in this new system but they will be monitored. All medical lawsuits will be looked at by a well respected and impartial legal committee all of whose members shall have impeccable credentials. Should a law suit be determined to be frivolous it shall be dismissed before it can tie up our legal system for many years and cost millions of dollars in court costs. Those that bring frivolous lawsuits will pay the costs of bringing them should they be found to be without merit. Bye bye ambulance chasers. All salaries in the medical field shall be frozen at a maximum of $ 500,000.00. All Doctors shall make a minimum of $ 50,000 dollars a year and be required to work no more than 60 hours a week. No longer will hospitals be allowed to work residents and interns 80 - 100 hours a week with little or no pay. Yes yes I know that this borders on socialism. I guess it would be fair to say that I'm enough of a socialist to believe that nobody should become super rich by treating the ill. You can also call me old fashioned enough to believe that those that are called to be Doctors should have humanitarian reasons as their prime motivator. I'd like to see a considerable increase in Dr. Albert Schweitzer thinking in our future Doctors and a concurrent considerable decrease in Bill Gates thinking. I trust a Dr. who drives a mid priced Toyota to look out for my best medical interests more than a Doctor with a $ 300,000 Mercedes and a $ 5,000,00 home.It's way past time to eliminate the Greed Factor at all levels of our healthcare system.
I know what some of you are thinking about this system but consider this. One of the biggest bitches I hear from Doctors Nurses Allied Health Professionals and hospital administrators is that complying with the myriad rules of the insurance companies and the endless red tape of government health care regulations is too time consuming and expensive. This system will alleviate that problem thus making the cost of medical care cheaper for the patient and making it easier for Doctors , Nurses and all allied medical personnel to do what they do so admirably well.
Should the $ 30.00 per month per individual not be enough to cover the costs of this system I propose that rather than raise the premiums on our American citizens we institute a national Market Entrance Fee of 20 % on all foreign goods entering our market. The Chinese have been the beneficiary of way too much American largesse over the last thirty years. It's way past time that we got some of the Chinese ill gotten American dollars back into our system to the benefit of our people. If the Chinese don't want to pay this fee then I would simply tell them that they are free to try and sell their cheap shit goods to the European Union / Emerging Markets. Trust me friends they will pay. They need us we don't need them.
I invite your comments as regards my plan.

On a related note. One of the big problems that I have constantly heard regarding our healthcare system is that there aren't enough Doctors and concurrently that medical school is too expensive. I have a proposal to alleviate that problem also. I propose a 20 % Market Entrance fee on all foreign goods entering the U.S. market. This money shall be divvied up using the following formula. 10 % to the federal government 7 % to the state government of the state in which the good or service was sold and 3% to the local government in the city or town where the goods or services were sold. This money by law shall be used exclusively to offer no cost loans to worthy students who wish to attend medical school with the caveat that upon finishing their training they work for a period of five years where the loan granter determines the need is. For instance if the federal government grants a student the loan that newly minted Doctor will work where the federal government determines the need is , if the state government grants the loan that newly minted Doctor will work anywhere in that state that the state government determines the need is and if the city / town grants the loan then that newly minted Doctor will work anywhere in that town where the city / town determines the need is. Affirmative action in all of it's pernicious incarnations will not by law be used as a criteria in granting these loans. If you get accepted solely on your academic merits you get the loan period. Read my lips " If you qualify solely by virtue of your academic abilities then you get the loan " PERIOD !!!
I invite your comments about this proposal also.

3 Comments

Jon Colson

2/28/2014 01:12:48 am

Just when you think that there cannot be a more idiotic plan than Obamacare...here you come.

1. The costs would NEVER be covered even with your import taxes and $30/month.
2. It us unconstitutional on too many levels to count.
3. Who are you to determine the maximum amount ... or minimum for that matter ... that a person can earn?
4. The quality of health care in this country would go into the toilet.
5. R&D on new medical remedies would cease because the risk/profit ratio would no longer be worth it.

Paul Stanner

2/28/2014 03:20:15 am

Dear Mr. Colson :

1. I disagree with your assertions that under my plan the costs won't be covered but it's really a moot point anyway since the Chinese have an endless supply of money so consequently all we need to do is raise the tariff accordingly. If we get lucky maybe will solve two problems with one stone.
2. I notice that you didn't bother to enumerate any of the ways that it's unconstitutional but it doesn't matter since this point is also moot. We'll just call it a tax as Obama and The Supreme Court did with ObamaCare. My bet is that neither Congress nor The U.S. Supreme court will do a damn thing about it as they haven't with ObamaCare.

3. Who do I need to be to determine these matters? Our current President has ZERO legitimate claim to the office yet he does these sorts of things constantly and is never questioned about it. At least I'm a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.

4.and 5. I disagree with your assertion on this point but once again it's a moot point. I'll just simply refer you to my reply on your first point.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll be filing your expert observations in the correct place ----- my wastebasket.

Have a nice day.

Mike Tarver

2/28/2014 06:49:54 am

Constitutionally speaking, your plan tramples all over the interstate commerce law (which by the way was the basis of Roe v. Wade. Figure that one out). Also your plan is dangerous on the Constitutional grounds of article ten. It is a massive federal overreach. While the other person's opinions on many of your solutions were a bit off-base, his/her assertion of unconstitutionality is correct. However, as we have seen from our current governing bodies the Constitution seems to be no obstacle. I like several of your ideas. First the enslavement of unpaid interns is despicable. If you work you should get paid. Second student grants for medical education to those with the proper mental and academic acumen free of repayment is a governmental transfer payment most of us would be willing to pay our tax dollars towards. Further, I like that initial assignment should be required, however, I would not like to see this in the hands of the federal government as state and local bodies have a better grasp on local needs and a lot less bureaucracy to wade through. While I believe the free market is a better controller of market equilibrium prices than an artificial government number which, as we have seen is almost always wrong. Maybe it would better to have several layers of oversight on the pharmaceutical industry should be implemented. That could be done on a national level but most of your other suggestion should be handled at the state level with federal oversight. If the federal government wanted to be involved with health care maybe they should "invest" in expansion of free clinics. This would be an option for patients and could be overseen by the federal boys and gals to maintain the standards they deem to be minimum health care requirements. The lower cost of these facilities would by the nature of free competition drive down prices in the private domain. The cost for these free clinics would be significantly less expensive to build and operate than both our current law and your plan. Here we could institute the payback plan on those grants. State boards would be required to assign grant recipients to these clinics at a fair working wage as a mandatory service before entering private practice. I definitely like your tort reform initiative but would add a financial penalty to those who attempt bringing these frivolous suits. Several ideas should be revisited. Insurance companies make billions of dollars in the market by investing our money. They can afford to greatly reduce the deductibles as well as allow existing conditions without substantial penalties. Doctors should be required to take the insurance, but the insurance companies should be required to offer a fair market payment. Again this could be handled at the state level better and would make the states satellite corporations in the free market forcing them to compete against other states. Add getting insurance, prescriptions and healthcare across state lines and you have a somewhat workable plan. Next time we should address the crime of out of state college tuition. thanks.

Dr. No { Ch. 3 }

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