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Simple Plan for Improving Health Care in America
Mark A. Goldman                                                                     Date: 7/28/09

A viable option for greatly improving our health care system might simply be an expansion of Medicare to cover more people.  I don’t see the need to invent a whole new system of health care delivery.  It might not be practical to cover all citizens at once but various age groups could be folded into the plan over time until everyone is brought on board.  

 For example, we might start by including in year one all children under the age of 10.  The following year, all children from ages 10 – 18.  After that, ages 19-25 and 60 to 65 , etc. until everyone is included.  The reason that it might not be practical for all people to be covered at one time is that the health care delivery systems might not be able to handle forty million new patients all at once… there might not be enough doctors to do a credible job and there might be other shortages as well.  It will take time to ramp up the system.  In any event, the best approach will be one that can succeed and offer inspiration for continued success and refinement… it should be simple enough to have a chance to work and be appreciated by those who participate.

What happens to those employed in the insurance industry now serving that sector?   Under my suggestion, Medicare will have to hire more people and so will hospitals and other health care providers.  Some can find work there.  As for the rest, it doesn’t make sense to keep people employed doing work that no longer serves a useful purpose.  There’s plenty of work that we need done to make our country a better place.   It’s time that we put our resources to work on projects that make people better off rather than rip them off.

We could, for example, shrink the military.  There is enough graft, waste, and corruption being spent on programs we don’t need, to pay for the best health care system in the world, the best transportation system, and a viable energy strategy.  There’s plenty of work to be done.  The only obstacle to progress are the people we’ve elected to represent us and the systems and procedures we use to find out who we should elect.

My simple approach would not require a total revamping of our health care system.  The infrastructure is already in place that would allow us to incrementally migrate to a better way of doing things.  

If we can find the money to pump $14 Trillion into the economy in order to bail out Wall Street, the insurance industry, and a lot of liars and cheats who work in those industries, we can find whatever funding is needed to provide the essential services we need as human beings.

Other countries have already demonstrated that all citizens can have a better health care than we have and have it for less money per person than we now spend not to insure everyone.  Other countries spend less, have better infant mortality rates and longer life expectancies.  My simple suggestion, if properly implemented, could save money in the long run and eventually improve life in America for all citizens.

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