Better Health: Smart Health Commentary

Featured

Congressman Paul Ryan’s Speech To Medical Bloggers At The National Press Club

July 18th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements, Health Policy
2 Comments »

Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)

*** Congressman Paul Ryan addressed the crowd at Better Health’s “Healthcare Reform: Putting Patients First” event. This is a transcript of his speech: ***

This event is a landmark in how we get discussion and debate going in the 21st century.  We are communicating with the grass roots, with medical bloggers here in this room and across the country.

Let me tell you this: I don’t want government interfering in the relationship between doctors and patients…and I don’t want insurance companies interfering either!  I want a vibrant health care market that lets patients choose the health care options that are right for them and their loved ones.  I want a free market democracy that puts patients first.  We can have this, and I’ll say something more about that in a minute.

Right now Congress is rushing through a health care overhaul that goes in the opposite direction.  It’s important to analyze the relative financial costs and benefits of these proposals, but our greater challenge is not the dollars and cents.  It goes to the issue of continuing the tradition of excellent health care that medical practitioners now provide.  It’s about the equal dignity of each human person…and the future of America as a free society.  The American character, and the principles of freedom & democracy which protect & preserve it, may be lost beyond recovery if Congress chooses the wrong path on health care reform—the path down which I believe the Obama Administration seems determined to lead our country.

Public health has always been a government priority.  Our Constitution’s Framers saw every individual as having a “right of personal security” which includes being protected against acts that may harm personal health.  This right is part of the natural right to life, and it is government’s very purpose to secure our natural rights to live, to be free, and to pursue happiness.

Now here is where believers in big government make their big mistake.  The right of each person to protection of health does not imply that government must provide health care.  The right to have food in order to live doesn’t require government to own the farms and raise the crops.  Government’s obligation is normally met by establishing the conditions for free markets to thrive.  Societies with economic freedom almost always have a growing abundance of goods and services at affordable costs for the largest number.  When free markets seem to be failing to meet this test – and I’d argue today’s health care delivery is an example – government should not supply the need itself.  It should correct its own interventions and liberate choice and competition.

We know from survey after survey that a vast majority of Americans are personally satisfied with the quality of their own health care.  The problem is really with health care delivery, which is growing too costly and leaving many people without coverage.  The proponents of government-run health care claim there are only two alternatives: either enact their plan or do nothing.  This is false. Government bureaucracy is not the answer to insurance company bureaucracy.

An authentic solution to the problem of affordability should be guided by the principles of moral and political freedom… respect doctor and patient privacy…restrain spending…and channel the energy of our free market system, not dry it up.   There is no lack of sensible alternative solutions proposed by Republicans to put patients first. Senators Coburn and Burr, and Congressman Nunes and I have offered one, called “The Patients’ Choice Act.”  It’s an example of how to eliminate government-driven market distortions that exclude many from affordable health care delivery.  More uninsured Americans can be covered by spending current dollars more wisely and efficiently than by throwing trillions more at the problem.  Our health care delivery alternatives are based on timeless American moral and political truths.

In essence, we believe that the dollars and decisions should flow through the individual patient, not from the government.  I want to see a market where providers truly compete against each other for our business as consumers and patients – not a bureaucratized system where health care providers vie for government favor as patients wait in line. Read more »

Better Health Sponsors Blogger-Politician Healthcare Reform Discussion At National Press Club

July 9th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements, Health Policy, Humor
9 Comments »

To join the event live, please contact john.briley@getbetterhealth.com Seating is limited…

Congressman Paul Ryan

Media Personality Rea Blakey

Health Care Reform: Putting Patients First

Elected Officials Join America’s Top Medical Bloggers to Discuss the Real,

Clinical Impact of Health Care Reform

WHAT: As the health care debate heats up on the Hill, join Representative Paul Ryan as he sits down with top medical bloggers from across the country to discuss health care reform and its impact on practicing clinicians. This keynote discussion will be followed by two panels of physician and nurse bloggers who will highlight the importance of putting patients first.  Topics covered will include key barriers to health care quality, affordability, and access as well as the potential pitfalls of a new public plan and ways to fix the current system without investing billions in a new one.

####

For more information on Better Health, visit https://www.getbetterhealth.com.

Congressman Paul Ryan Offers A Roadmap For America’s Future At The Medicare Policy Summit

February 17th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Policy
2 Comments »

Republicans do not support Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill, nor are they too keen on the democratic approach to healthcare reform. Congressman Paul Ryan outlined an alternative approach to healthcare reform at the recent Medicare Policy Summit conference. His key points:

1. All Americans should have access to the same health benefits that federal employees have. They receive a medical savings account, with subsidies offered when they are sick, according to their need. Full support is available for low-income beneficiaries, while partial support is offered to high income beneficiaries. Ryan argues that targeting Medicare according to need will keep the program solvent (rather than offering full coverage to the very wealthy, etc.)

2. Tax credits should provide the basis for healthcare coverage so that individuals are not dependent on their employers for health insurance. Individuals would purchase their own health insurance either via their employer or on an open market that would promote competition between the plans to drive prices down. Individuals would be able to keep the remainder of their tax credit if they select a health plan that costs less than their yearly credit.

3. Americans will be allowed to purchase health insurance across state lines, allowing them further coverage options and increasing competition among the plans to decrease costs.

4. Small businesses may join a national group (Associations Health Plans) to pool risks and drive down the cost of providing health insurance to their employees.

5. States would create “high risk pools” for people with pre-existing conditions who could not afford insurance premiums. Federal funding would help to offset the cost of insuring these individuals.

Ryan explained that the Ways and Means Committee that oversees Medicare is basically “a bunch of politicians sitting in a room playing Caesar – giving either a thumb’s up or thumb’s down to healthcare reform and finance issues.” He warns that they will be doing a lot more of that if America continues on its current course of “more regulation, with the federal government dictating the practice of medicine, and rationing our healthcare.”

Ryan’s predictions are grim:

1. Within 2 years 17% of our economy will move from the private sector column to the public sector column.

2. Pete Stark will lead the charge for an Institute of Comparative Effectiveness to direct care choices in medicine. Physicians will have fewer treatment options to offer their patients.

3. Small health plans will go out of business, leaving only a few large plans, with decreased competition and fewer choices for consumers.

***

For more information about Ryan’s views, please check out The Roadmap For America’s Future.