Sunday, April 1, 2012

Suppose the Supremes kill Obamacare?

Suppose that intelligence breaks out over the Supremes and they rule Obamacare totally unconstitutional and null and void? What happens next?
There will be a great hue and cry for Congress to "do something". OK, so what should Congress do?
We ought to address the real health care crisis, wild and crazy spending that's bankrupting the country. The US spends 19% of GNP on healthcare, which is TWICE what any other country in the world spends. For this torrent of money, the country does not get better health than the rest of the world. Real numbers, like life expectancy and infant mortality don't show any benefits from all the money poured down the drain. A good dozen countries have better numbers than the US and spend way way less. If we could bring the price down out of the stratosphere, it would be easier to pay our doctor bills. Let's try the following
1. Interstate competition in health insurance. We ought to allow any licensed insurance company based in any state to sell policies in every other state. Up here we only have TWO insurance companies to choose from, and both of them are expensive. If we had more choices we would get better prices. The insurance companies hate this idea, but we ought to do it anyhow. The commerce clause was intended to give Congress the power to do exactly this sort of thing.
2. Allow and encourage purchase of drugs from any first world country, say Canada. Also England, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland. US made drugs are sold overseas for a fraction of the price that US citizens have to pay in this country. If we could legally import any foreign drugs it would cut the price of pills a lot. The drug companies hate this, but we ought to do it.
3. Reform the FDA's approval process. Right now the FDA bureaucrats can jerk drug and device makers around, demand ever more expensive clinical trials, and make the cost of getting a drug or device approved for use prohibitive. The FDA should only test for safety, NOT effectiveness. Doctors and insurance companies will weed out ineffective things far faster than FDA bureaucrats. No ethical doctor will proscribe things that don't work, and no insurance company will pay for such treatment.
4. Protect doctors from the lawyers. No lawyer should be able to sue a doctor who proscribed FDA approved medicine, EVEN IF the FDA later revokes that approval (Vioxx). Lawyers should not be allowed to advertise for plaintiffs on TV (or anywhere else) . Malpractice is a creation of state law, so the states need to do the heavy lifting here. Lawyers hate this idea, and most politicians are lawyers.

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