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One man's fix for the economy and healthcare

Marc Sobel / Guest Commentary

(Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 4:26 PM)

An alcoholic will not find the road to recovery until he/she recognizes the problem.

We must be willing to admit we have a economic problem that will require sacrifices to fix. Fixing the housing market is key to our economic recovery. Part of the economics includes healthcare and social security.

Economy: A huge part of the economic problem is public sediment. It is opinion based. It is the foundation that our capitalistic system works on and because of that fact we must respect the influence it has on us.

What I am talking about is the fluid nature of price verses demand and what that does to the value of everything. It is so powerful that after several trillion dollars were dumped into the economy, we still could not change anything because people were still afraid to spend or loan money.

There is a reason why inflation is good. It makes everything seem more valuable, a good perception. This is the bubble we popped in 2008. It started in the housing market and crept into everything.

We start the fix with housing: We go back to the basics of supply and demand. The foreclosure market has caused a glut of supply for the available buyers. Supply can be managed. We have to be honest with ourselves and know we already own this problem and we are going to pay for it one way or another.

Forecloses still have to happen: We offer banks to match the rent paid on every distressed or foreclosed home for up to several years if the home owner stays in the house. This gets homes off the market. We make that same homeowner a no fee streamline process to buy that home back if the rent is paid on time for a year. This will remove many homes from the market and help to drive up the price of homes.

Many homeowners are giving up their homes not because they cannot afford the payments but because the home is a bad investment now.

Healthcare: Our system is broken. It operates like a monopoly where competition is hard to find. My proposals will inject competition and help bring down the cost of doing business for doctors and hospitals.

We have to open the door to competitive pricing on everything. Drugs must be allowed to be obtained from any source including international suppliers. Every medical professional should be able to provide you with a price list for the top 100 procedures they perform.

Many medical needs can be bundled, need a hip replacement then it cost "X." Doctors shall offer two prices, a standard cost that can be covered by insurance and a discounted price for cash. Some medical service providers already do this and they are thriving. Examples are plastic surgeons, dentists and eye doctors. Did you notice that these services I listed are not usually covered by most insurance policies?

Insurance has to be portable like a phone number is today. Insurance has to cover everyone regardless of conditions but if you have high blood pressure for example then the insurance companies can surcharge you for the conditions that put you at higher risk of needing medical services.

The doctors, hospitals and drug makers need help to reduce cost. Tort reform is a must. Any drug that passes FDA testing shall be immune from lawsuits unless the manufacture lied to the FDA. Malpractice must be capped and a new expedited way of judging malpractice claims must take the place outside of the court system. Patients could buy their own malpractice insurance that would double or triple any awarded amount. This is akin to buying airline accidental death insurance.

We have to take care of the uninsured but that care should be limited to lifesaving efforts including care for children. Today we pay for this through exaggerated pricing structure and taxes at all levels of government. All medical service shall be taxed to cover the uninsured to a limited degree.

Tax funded clinics can be set up to provide the basic needs of the uninsured but even these places shall charge a minimum fee for service. Unless you are brought into a ER unconscious you shall be required to pay a small fee ($20-40) or no service.

All professionals will be required to donate "X" hours a year in a tax funded clinic. Most professional fields that have license requirements require continuing education. This requirement of service would be akin to those requirements.

Unleashing competition will change the whole industry. More people will be insured because cost and competitive insurance plans will be cheaper.

Medicare: This is insurance and with all insurance, a premium is charged to cover cost. We are living longer and the population is getting older so somehow we must charge more or limit service.

Limiting service or changing the age is not politically possible so we must charge more premiums. The health care fix I proposed will go a long way to bring down cost. Instead of charging workers more or charging seniors more, we shift the extra premium to an estate tax. The tax would only kick in for estates over $50,000 for example. This would allow families a basic inheritance tax free.

The tax would only be charged on estates for those people that received Medicare (over 65 years old). The tax would increase for each year they were alive past 65. Estate trustees would be given a generous amount of time (three years) to pay the tax when a home or family business is part of the estate.

My last ideas are to uncap the same industry that made our county great. We must abolish the EPA or reduce it to a monitoring agency for only five years. Know the EPA is duplicated on the state level so there are still environmental protections.

Drill for oil in Anwar and offshore. We suspend the endangered species act for five years. There are numerous federal agencies that have counter parts in every state. Agencies like the department of education have to go away. Senator Coburn has identified over 700 federal programs that are duplicated in states.

My last idea is to create the Department of Waste. Ironic that I am suggesting a new government agency but it must be self funded though the fines it will make. We allow any citizen to report waste. The prize for making such a report is a share of the savings over the first year.