Should we be content that we made it through 2013, it seems we always do, no matter what happpens. Now is the time to become accountable and assertive to determine our future health care.
Many aspects come together to produce 'the perfect storm'. This storm is not necessarily a destructive one. It has set off an early warning signal for our country that we must be cautious of how we reform our health system.
Nevertheless our health system is in shambles, further delays in revising it, or continuing on with the ACA will lead to a train wreck.
Obamacare is focused on health insurance, with caveats, rewards, and penalties.. Neither patients or providers were the center of the reform. The item that did serve patients was solving the pre-existing conditions as a reason for denying coverage,and eliminating the cap on coverage.
Health Reform will not take place in isolation or in one swoop, and despite the ACA we will not yet have a functioning plan, nor will we if we continue with the present legislation.
Health Train Express receives a daily stream of analysis and recommendations for future modification to our system. Neither hype, grandiosity, political motives nor slick marketing by 'celebrities' is going to 'fix' our system.
The good news is that we do have the finest scientific and technical resources already at our beck and call. All of this is available, it's a question of distribution, and we can compare it to supply line management. We do not need a "Manhattan Project" to invent a new technology. We already possess it. Perhaps this is an oversimplification, however many have compared our system to other industries, such as the airline business, the banking business and shipping businesses. No one model correctly addresses health financing.
There are aspects, accessibility, funding, prevention, and correcting the huge cost disparites and how to correct the burden for deficits & reimbursements.
Although the ACA passed in 2010, we are more than three years down the road, and most of the ACA has not occurred. Further delays will occur now due to the inability to implement the first stages and mandates. What has happened is the insurance companies have been sent into disarray, and have been asked already to double back.
The extent of increases in implementation cost will accelerate further and even cancel whatever cost reductions are predicted by the ACA. Some studies have already demonstrated this fact.
Fortunately, the disagreements and controversy have focused attention on our health system for many who have been passive and willing to accept the system for what it is. Each year we witness a steady increase in premiums, increasing deductibles, increasing co-payments and decreasing reimbursements. We have mistakenly used tax law to minimize or maximize gains from insurance coverage with MSPs, HSAs, and now face a myriad of new, unproven schemes such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) predicted to decrease cost and improve quality.
It is a highly complex equation, involving some market economics, and a system of reimbursement that defies logic. For some time the financing has been approached as a point of service transaction(POS) with creative financing such as capitation, some tax credits, and deductions. A portion of the state's public social service system is deemed 'free care' although it is not.
There are many 'misnomers' , such as 'usual and customary charges', pre-paid rates, adjustments, and cash deductions, Insurance companies have based their rates and policies upon algorithms and actuarial analysis, and a 'fudge factor' for unpredictability.
Many have sad, health care is a right, based upon aspects of the constitution in regard to the pursuit of happiness and freedom. Although the word health does not appear in the constitution, health can be construed to be a part of pursuing........life and happiness.
Others state that health care is not a right and not everyone should have health coverage, with a bit of 'they don't deserve it. Neither truly can be legitimized by such a callous attitude.
What we need is a steady hand on the system that will deal equitably and with imperturbability the illnesses of human life and the equal ability to cope with it.
Freedom Works is an organization now intent upon health reform and maintaining the underlying freedoms we as all Americans cherish.
How will Freedom Works support our goals for health reform? Freedom Works not only is interested in health care, it also works across a wide variety of niches with a consistent underlying standard based on our most fundamental beliefs of freedom and constitutional law.
An email arrived in my inbox from Freedom Works that i would share with all my readers, providers, patients, employees of our health system and leaders in Congress.
This is your chance to weigh in on improving the Accountable Care Act. Take the Survey constructed by Freedom Works.
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