KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A foundational problem with our health care system is the government health programs are duplicative, laden with paperwork, and incongruent rules and regulations.
America is the only industrialized nation to have different bureaucracies for different groups of citizens.
Every other industrialized nation has one health bureaucracy for all of its citizens. One for all. This bureaucratic duplication is complex and expensive. Therefore, the first step towards lowering the cost of health care is to consolidate, simplify, standardize, and digitize.
- Consolidate The government health bureaucracies in Washington: Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, Veterans Administration health services, and the Indian Health Service should all be consolidated and downsized into one streamlined, accountable bureaucracy. We'll save hundreds of millions on duplicitous office space, salaries, and other redundancies!
- Standardize
Once consolidated, then all their separate and complicated rules, terminology, and paperwork must be simplified and standardized. It would be wise to include private sector HMOs and insurance companies to also simplify and align their paperwork and online applications to be compatible. An analogy for this standardization is the signage on our Interstate Highway System whereby the signage is the same in all 50 states. It doesn't mean government takeover, it just means we all agree to a standard set of forms. - Digitize
All medical records and billing statements must be digitized. This greatly facilitates transportability of all records and reduce medical errors.
President Dwight Eisenhower fathered the idea of the Interstate Highway System. It's a nation-wide system we all pay for and we all share. with standardized design, build quality, signage, etc. The interstate highway system facilitates business and individual travel alike. With steps 1, 2, and 3 above we could facilitate an interstate health system. An interstate health system is not a government takeover, instead it helps to facilitate the private sector to be more efficient and effective.
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