Medical Practice

Ritholtz at The Big Picture expresses that the Inflationary push of the last several years comes from Health Care Costs. No Business can afford to match the rate of increasing medical costs in their Wage schedule, when their Price schedules are suppressed by Import threat. Active measures must be taken to curb the expansion of health care Costs; in actuality, such Costs must be rolled back in order for the current Standard of Living to be maintained (only about 22% of Those affected by medical cost increases are impacted in the initial year of Cost increase). There are several venues to decrease medical costs; do not think medical costs are a Gordian knot.

A Medical Service law can be enacted holding several curtailing provisions. Doctor Salaries can be regulated in such a way to provide access with support. Establishment of a Medical Commission to set Medical Service Set rates across the Country. Doctors will be informed they can only draw Fees to a certain magnitude from the Public Sector, before they are considered to be Employees of the Government, and must maintain a certain set Patient load from Public medical programs; without further reimbursement. A set rate for a Clinic visit will be established for the entire Country, varying only according to the medical specialty extended by the Clinic; medical equipment payments will be extended to Clinics who provide a set level of medical services for Publicly funding Patients. Hospital Room rates will be set and uniform throughout the Country; again with medical equipment payments, this time allocated by area access to medical services.

A Medical Insurance law should also be enacted, where the One-Payer concept of Insurance will be utilized. The Medical Commission previously set up would set a Deductible for all medical insurance policies throughout the Country, and which will never be increased even by the rate of Inflation without Congressional action. Medical underwriting will include all Services approved by the Medical Commission–based upon the Fee schedule set by the Commission each year, and further Charges cannot be ordered or accepted by any medical Patients. There will be special leeway over the later, as the number of medical services should be limited, and a special sub-Commission of the overall Commission must approve all medical procedures exceeding $20k in Cost. Private Insurance will pay for the expensive procedures approved, without recourse to legal action or delay; it being a condition of their license to sell medical insurance. This sub-Commission is tasked with determination of likelihood of a certain level of success by examination of the Patient’s health and condition; and forbidden to extend Payments when the Probability of success does not meet the necessary criterion.

What does all this mean? It means that the provision of medical services will be taken out of the hands of the Patients and their families, who are afflicted by personal desires; and it will be taken out of the hands of Private Insurers whose major concern is sustained Profitability. It is even taken from the hands of Medical Practitioners, who could be influenced by personal relationships, or a personal pride which refuses to let any Patient go. It will be determined by Medical professionals who have separation of personal involvement, and must rely solely upon medical charts and statistical tables to allocate funds of high Cost. Will it make a difference? It should reduce American medical Costs to a consistent level achieved by other Developed Countries facing like medical problems. lgl