Trump Must Use His Victory to Fix Health Care

Date:

Share post:



461de5cc 9869 496d 86fd 17b989327740

With the reelection of Donald Trump and the potential involvement of transformative figures like Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States may have a unique opportunity to reform health care in ways not seen in generations.





Its widely recognized that our current health care system is severely flawed. Health care comprises nearly one-fifth of the U.S. economy and is bogged down by layers of administrative and bureaucratic inefficiencies that inflate costs, distort incentives, and hinder both quality and accessibility of care.

The bloat is substantial: nearly half of health care jobs are non-clinical, meaning they are held by people who do not meaningfully interact with patients—positions like billers, coders, administrators, and bureaucrats. These jobs often add little to no value but instead bureaucratize care at a massive financial and health cost.

Many of todays health care problems can be traced back to the fact that control has been relinquished to governmental and insurance third parties that relegate the patient to a secondary role, where financial transactions occur between providers and third parties rather than directly involving patients.

Opposing true reform are powerful but parasitic entities that have enriched themselves at the expense of patients, their health, and society. Effective change will not come from top-down tweaks that merely paint over the cracks in the current broken system; rather, it will require transformative incentives that cause the system to reform itself.





The foundation of this change is to restore the patient as the primary payer in health care, and thus the center of the systems focus. Doing so would eliminate waste, price distortions, and the inherent conflicts of interest within the current system.

A simple shift away from third-party control to patient control would trigger a domino effect of meaningful change, introducing incentives for providers to either reform or go out of business. Health care entities, now beholden to patients instead of third parties, would compete to provide the highest quality, cost-effective care, as judged by the end consumer: the patient.

Central to this approach is the understanding that patients already pay for their care at inflated rates. However, the full extent of this expense is hidden under layers of taxes, premiums, wage deferrals, copayments, and other charges.

Mechanisms already exist that, with minor modifications, could prevent this diversion to third parties and instead allow investment in patient-controlled health savings accounts (HSAs) for younger patients and medical savings accounts (MSAs) for Medicare recipients. These accounts should be separated from traditional insurance and usable for paying premiums for insurance, health-sharing plans, short-term policies, or other options deemed best by the patient to meet individual needs.





By controlling these tax-preferred accounts, patients would access the care they want—not what a third party allows. Restrictive networks, obstructive authorizations, or referrals would no longer stand between patients and their care. With the guidance of a trusted physician, the only authorization a patient would need is their own. As consumers, patients would demand high-quality, cost-effective, accessible care from their providers—and if unsatisfied, they could take their dollars elsewhere.

This patient-centered payment method would be flexible enough to allow for rapid innovation, no longer restricted by the archaic third-party payment system that only recently recognized, under pandemic pressure, the utility of telehealth and other innovations.

Legacy health care establishments would be placed under positive stress to provide value, or risk being outcompeted by providers better able to meet patient demands. Insurance, while still necessary, would return to its intended role as a financial tool to prevent catastrophic financial loss, rather than the overriding manager of all medical care.

For those truly unable to afford even this more reasonable model, a means-tested approach could support their accounts, with contributions from family, friends, charities, or the government. These patients would still control their funds and engage in free-market incentives to help rein in excesses in the health care system.





Though simple, this approach could transform our health care system, potentially halving our $4.8 trillion price tag. Such savings—on par with the GDP of entire nations—could reduce the national deficit, alleviate the leading cause of bankruptcies, and lower employment costs, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of American companies in the global market.

With Trump’s solid victory and the GOP controlling both houses of Congress, we are at an unprecedented crossroads. The question remains: Will we seize this opportunity?


Chad Savage, M.D. ([email protected]) is a policy advisor with The Heartland Institute, Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation policy fellow, and president of DPC Action.




Source link

Lisa Holden
Lisa Holden
Lisa Holden is a news writer for LinkDaddy News. She writes health, sport, tech, and more. Some of her favorite topics include the latest trends in fitness and wellness, the best ways to use technology to improve your life, and the latest developments in medical research.

Recent posts

Related articles

NEW: There's a Twist in Who Will Run the Trump Ag Department

Over the past day, speculation in the media was...

Opponent of COVID Vaccine Mandates Appointed to Lead the Food and Drug Administration

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Marty Makary to...

Day-O…Tally My Banana: Duct-Taped Banana Sells for $6.2 Million

EA Bucchianeri wrote in "Brushstrokes of a Gadfly" that...

President-Elect Trump Names New HUD Chief

On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump (never will get tired...

Donald Trump Faces His First Big Policy Test

With the election in the rearview mirror, things are...