Holiday Wish-List to President-Elect Obama: Quality Health Care for all Americans

• Author: Health Informer
• Filed under: Health News
• Date: Dec 22,2008

The following is being issued by T. L. Kittle, CEO and founder of the Blue Diamond Foundation:

What would help most Americans achieve optimum health care?

Since many people living in the United States don’t have access to quality health care, this is a wish-list to President-Elect Obama of actions that can be taken in order to ensure quality health care for everyone in the New Year.

As many of those who are ill understand, having health insurance does not necessarily mean having access to good health care–the current business practices that the insurance companies are allowed to utilize often make the insurance company itself an obstacle to quality medical care.

So this is my Holiday Wish-List…not in any order of importance, but the list nevertheless.

• Physicians should not need to get approvals from insurance companies for their orders. If lawyers don’t need to ask permission, why do physicians? Not only does the approval process create unnecessary waste, it harms lives in the delays.

• Eliminate pre-existing conditions.

• Reduce co-pays and deductibles to rates that are more affordable. Most people don’t realize how little their insurance actually covers until they become ill.

• Create a ‘patient directs’ physician protection law. Because there are so many diseases that have false negatives on test results, not to mention diseases there aren’t even names for, the current system makes it very difficult for physicians to help these patients–they’re either afraid insurance won’t cover the services or they’re afraid of getting sued later in the medical malpractice system. There needs to be a waiver that patients can sign that says, “This is my body, and while standards of care indicate xyz, I would like this medical action and in discussion with my physician I accept responsibility for negative consequences.” While physicians know more about medicine, patients know more about their bodies. Many people are suffering unnecessarily simply because their physician’s hands are tied.

• Pay physicians for the work they do–on par with attorneys. If physicians get a difficult case, very few want to take it because they aren’t being compensated for time on the job. Make it mandatory for insurance companies to provide compensation for x number of hours of research per patient and y number of phone calls per patient per calendar year. (10 hours of research, 25 phone calls?) Many people who are suffering horribly with an unusual case have a difficult time finding a physician simply because physicians can’t afford to take on a lot of difficult cases.

• Work with major corporations to develop a new paradigm for health care. Many corporations are struggling to make profits, yet still want to provide quality health care for their employees. Develop a new national system, giving corporations the option to pay into a well thought-out health care plan that provides quality care at affordable rates, outside of the current private system model.

• Stop hospitals from charging more to those without insurance than the insurance company rates. Many people are losing their homes for amounts that the insurance companies would pay $5,000.

This current connection between “health insurance” somehow means “good health care” is simply misleading, and very far from the truth in some cases. Developing a new health insurance system, in collaboration with private corporations and public interest groups, with government accountability, will help make affordable health care available to everyone.

As evident by the millions without health insurance and those with health insurance yet being denied much needed medical care, there needs to be created an entirely new paradigm in order to make available quality health care. Clearly, the evidence that the current system is malfunctioning is overwhelming.

Health for one is healthy for all–it’s time for this nation to take a stand by implementing a new approach.

If the major corporations would come together with the government and public interest groups to develop a new paradigm, the people of the United States might actually be able to access quality medical care when they need it, as they need it, without hassle or delay–something most people in this country have never experienced.

T. L. Kittle is the founder and CEO of the Blue Diamond Foundation, established to assist those who need access to quality medical care.