A well written post! (Because ZZ didn't write it. He merely provided a link to it.)
The GOP has no business authoring socialist legislation. No wonder the bill sucks.
Repeal and do NOT replace. Instead, find the flaws in our healthcare and fix them one by one. This will undoubtedly involve other repeals since government did more to create the mess that lead to Obamacare than anything else.
Two key pieces of legislation that would really lower healthcare costs are:
(1) Set reasonable limits on awards from malpractice suits. In fact, I'd say that set dollar amounts should exist for lost lives, lost limbs and other injuries, and those amounts should be SMALL by today's standards. If doctors don't have to pay a fortune for malpractice insurance or spend hours each day completing insurance-related paperwork, it will be easier to run small practices and/or to lower their fees.
(2) Allow medically certified individuals who are not doctors to treat the majority of medical issues. These would include lacerations, infections, colds, physicals, mole removals, X-ray readings for broken bones, etc. There's no reason why a nurse, EMT or army medic shouldn't be allowed to handle some of these cases. I don't need to see a doctor to have the cut on my foot cleaned and treated. I just need someone who is reasonably competent, who can give me some novocaine before sewing it up. Obviously, they should be sharp enough to know when they're out of their league and make referrals to doctors as appropriate. But 99% of the time, that's not going to be an issue.
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