Phantom
04-05-2008, 07:15 AM
Ron Paul’s Health Ideas Make Economic Sense
The Right Side
By Rick Coddington
special to Mountain Mail
SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- In this final look at health care costs and politics we’re going to check out Ron Paul’s plan. Ron who? Is he running for President? Ron Paul is running for president as a Republican. If you have missed that it is because the media has very pointedly ignored him.
During these endless and mostly mindless debates Paul has showed himself to be the only original thinker in the whole stable of Presidential wannabes. For whatever reason – and all the conspiracy theories not withstanding – the media has just cut him out of the process which makes me think that there is no longer such a thing as reporting the news. What remains is only propaganda and promotion of corporate agendas.
Someone once said that you didn’t have to be the head of CNN to control the news, you just had to be the personnel director and hire the people who would manipulate the news according to their own personal beliefs. Very possibly that’s what we have now.
However they do it, I am convinced that from the dirge of the Iraqi death toll to the suppression of real ideas for change, the news media has sold us out for their own ends. Having said all that I feel better and now I’m ready to get back to the point – Ron Paul’s health plan.
Congressman Paul is a medical doctor by profession. That alone should make him worth listening to because he has real world experience with the health care process. On a side note, his nickname in congress is Dr. No, because he votes against so many governmental programs. That makes me like him even more.
On health care, Paul was quoted as saying: “Health care should not be left up to HMOs, big drug companies and government bureaucrats. It is time to take back our health care.”
That, to me is the solution in a nutshell. As I have said over and over, the problem is insurance and drug company profiteering and the government bureaucrats that propagate this broken system.
Paul starts by proposing to make all medical expenses tax deductible by doing away with the current 7.5 percent IRS deduction. Simply put that means that you wouldn’t have to get to some IRS number to deduct your expenses, they would be immediately and totally cut from your taxes.
Next, Paul proposes eliminating federal regulations that discourage small businesses from providing coverage. He then moves onto the supply side of the problem by proposing to give doctors the right to collectively negotiate with insurance companies and drive down the cost of medical care.Excellent!
Paul goes on to propose changing the rules to make every American eligible for a Health Savings Account, or HSA, and removing the requirement that individuals must obtain a high-deductible insurance policy before opening an HSA. That means that we could pay ourselves (a tax deductible amount), put it into an account that we have control of and immediate access to and not have the insurance execs carving out their percentage from our money.
Paul also proposes reforming licensure requirements so that pharmacists and nurses can perform some basic medical functions to increase access to care and lower costs. Excellent again!
He also proposes reforms to end the lawsuits that cost us so much money, because, as with everything else, the doctors don’t pay for their malpractice insurance, we do. They just tack it onto the cost of an office visit and we end up paying the lawyers a cut every time we go to the doctor!
Ron Paul has already introduced legislation on all these issues, -so we know he is for real. He has been working as a Congressman for years to provide real workable solutions to the crisis. Sadly, they have largely failed because the majority of our “representatives” in Washington, D.C., need the bucks from the drug and insurance lobbies to maintain their seats in Congress. So, no reform
Paul has been quoted as saying: “Our free market health care system that was once the envy of the world has become a federally-managed disaster.” And: “The federal government decided long ago that it knew how to manage your health care better than you and replaced personal responsibility and accountability with a system that puts corporate interests first.” Sounds right to me.
He also said: “Few people realize that Congress forced Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) on us. HMOs rose to prominence through federal legislation, incentives, and coercion. Now, the Food and Drug Administration’s bias toward large pharmaceutical companies enlarges their power, limits treatment options and drives consumers to seek Canadian medicines.”
In case anyone has not been reading these columns, I am one of those consumers and I hold that the Canadian re-importation of my American prescription drugs as proof positive that we are being robbed under the current system. I believe that Paul and even McCain are offering ideas for reforming the healthcare system that really will work without bankrupting the country with some doomed socialist agenda like those Hillary or Obama are proposing.
Government controls are the problem, not the solution and more socialistic government intervention will mean more problems. Freedom is the answer. Radical that I am I’d like to take it further and have the right to write my own prescriptions. But that is another column.
Rick Coddington is a third-generation native New Mexican. His opinions do not necessarily represent the Mountain Mail.
Link (http://www.stpns.net/view_article.html?articleId=86547551026538716)
The Right Side
By Rick Coddington
special to Mountain Mail
SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- In this final look at health care costs and politics we’re going to check out Ron Paul’s plan. Ron who? Is he running for President? Ron Paul is running for president as a Republican. If you have missed that it is because the media has very pointedly ignored him.
During these endless and mostly mindless debates Paul has showed himself to be the only original thinker in the whole stable of Presidential wannabes. For whatever reason – and all the conspiracy theories not withstanding – the media has just cut him out of the process which makes me think that there is no longer such a thing as reporting the news. What remains is only propaganda and promotion of corporate agendas.
Someone once said that you didn’t have to be the head of CNN to control the news, you just had to be the personnel director and hire the people who would manipulate the news according to their own personal beliefs. Very possibly that’s what we have now.
However they do it, I am convinced that from the dirge of the Iraqi death toll to the suppression of real ideas for change, the news media has sold us out for their own ends. Having said all that I feel better and now I’m ready to get back to the point – Ron Paul’s health plan.
Congressman Paul is a medical doctor by profession. That alone should make him worth listening to because he has real world experience with the health care process. On a side note, his nickname in congress is Dr. No, because he votes against so many governmental programs. That makes me like him even more.
On health care, Paul was quoted as saying: “Health care should not be left up to HMOs, big drug companies and government bureaucrats. It is time to take back our health care.”
That, to me is the solution in a nutshell. As I have said over and over, the problem is insurance and drug company profiteering and the government bureaucrats that propagate this broken system.
Paul starts by proposing to make all medical expenses tax deductible by doing away with the current 7.5 percent IRS deduction. Simply put that means that you wouldn’t have to get to some IRS number to deduct your expenses, they would be immediately and totally cut from your taxes.
Next, Paul proposes eliminating federal regulations that discourage small businesses from providing coverage. He then moves onto the supply side of the problem by proposing to give doctors the right to collectively negotiate with insurance companies and drive down the cost of medical care.Excellent!
Paul goes on to propose changing the rules to make every American eligible for a Health Savings Account, or HSA, and removing the requirement that individuals must obtain a high-deductible insurance policy before opening an HSA. That means that we could pay ourselves (a tax deductible amount), put it into an account that we have control of and immediate access to and not have the insurance execs carving out their percentage from our money.
Paul also proposes reforming licensure requirements so that pharmacists and nurses can perform some basic medical functions to increase access to care and lower costs. Excellent again!
He also proposes reforms to end the lawsuits that cost us so much money, because, as with everything else, the doctors don’t pay for their malpractice insurance, we do. They just tack it onto the cost of an office visit and we end up paying the lawyers a cut every time we go to the doctor!
Ron Paul has already introduced legislation on all these issues, -so we know he is for real. He has been working as a Congressman for years to provide real workable solutions to the crisis. Sadly, they have largely failed because the majority of our “representatives” in Washington, D.C., need the bucks from the drug and insurance lobbies to maintain their seats in Congress. So, no reform
Paul has been quoted as saying: “Our free market health care system that was once the envy of the world has become a federally-managed disaster.” And: “The federal government decided long ago that it knew how to manage your health care better than you and replaced personal responsibility and accountability with a system that puts corporate interests first.” Sounds right to me.
He also said: “Few people realize that Congress forced Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) on us. HMOs rose to prominence through federal legislation, incentives, and coercion. Now, the Food and Drug Administration’s bias toward large pharmaceutical companies enlarges their power, limits treatment options and drives consumers to seek Canadian medicines.”
In case anyone has not been reading these columns, I am one of those consumers and I hold that the Canadian re-importation of my American prescription drugs as proof positive that we are being robbed under the current system. I believe that Paul and even McCain are offering ideas for reforming the healthcare system that really will work without bankrupting the country with some doomed socialist agenda like those Hillary or Obama are proposing.
Government controls are the problem, not the solution and more socialistic government intervention will mean more problems. Freedom is the answer. Radical that I am I’d like to take it further and have the right to write my own prescriptions. But that is another column.
Rick Coddington is a third-generation native New Mexican. His opinions do not necessarily represent the Mountain Mail.
Link (http://www.stpns.net/view_article.html?articleId=86547551026538716)