How would you handle health care reform?

I would have made greed illegal, instead of the current immorality of it. You may not have been around 50 & 60 years ago, when greed and bribery on the part of the drug companies, insurance companies, law-makers, and Doctors too, first became known. I said then that we "would soon have socialized medicine, and Doctors had no one to blame but themselves." I still believe I was correct. The luxurious offices, landscaping and lifestyles on the part of all of those entities was ridiculous and only added to medical costs, not to mention the incredible lifestyles on the part of insurance executives, whose "bonuses" and the exorbitant insurance premiums they were responsible for drove many of the conscientious Doctors abroad. Just my opinion.

Tort reform, allow interstate insurance competition, get govt OUT of healthcare entirely. End Crony Capitalism, make lobbying $$$ illegal. Cut the FDA back to an advisory body only.

Most of your contentious statment is false.

I'd outlaw FOR PROFIT insurance across the board and put in a single payer system where one presented their Health Care insurance card, paid their co pay and got the service they needed.

Kind of like the Kaiser program

Take money out of medicine, I don't want corporations competing for medical patients.

You'd rather there be no competition so that whatever entity provides health care can say "you either get this or nothing"?

Something like that. Doctors that are in it for the money can go away.

That way when the doctor says, "no I won't treat you" and you say "I'll go see someone else" they get to say "there isn't anyone else". Good idea.

allow a TRUE free market (none of this crony corporatism crap that passes for a free market) to naturally control quality and prices. When people have the power to vote with their wallets, prices drop and quality increases EVERY TIME.

First, kick the government out. Unless a drug is killing people (if there is, we treat it as manslaughter, at least), there should be no government involvement.

Second, end all tax incentives for employers offering insurance (preferably end the income tax), and tell people they should shop for their own insurance, or if they choose not have it.

Third, outside of government, advocate alternative medicine and advocate charities and charity hospitals to take care of the "less fortunate" if they please. Often a charity can manage "free" healthcare much better than government, because free market elements will keep the charities in check (charities rely on willful donations, governments take money by force). For alternative medicine, there is simply more to medicine than drugs and stitches. We should be open to all forms and allow the people to individually decide what form of medicine they want.

Start by removing the biggest problem which is government. End the EMTALA's, that eliminates the ER as the stop gap for those who are irresponsible. Increase the charitable write off for hospitals and urgent care facilities, to broaden the deduction for uncompensated care. Remove barriers to insurance access, for those who want it. Everything else is a pay as you go system, where you and your doctor are in charge. You don't expect your auto insurance policy to pay for your oil change yet you expect your health insurance to cover ever aspect of care. Health insurance was never designed to be anything but a mitigation of risk when something unforeseeable happens.

...start off by seeing how other countries operate their health services.

There's no point re-inventing the wheel!

True but what the United States needs may not be what other nations need; still there are examples of very good healh care systems in Sandinavian Northern European nations like FInland, as I mentioned in my post.

Good point but my thoughts, if I were setting up universal health care at time of need in the USA, would be to check out other systems and take note of the successes and failures and use what suited me ... even if it meant chopping up all the other systems and just taking the bits that fit our (your!) needs.

States can figure out what is best for their voters...bark

I would implement Medicare for all, single payer.

Single payer.

attached to that would be measures to stop the medical price gouging and take medical malpractice out of civil courts and put it into criminal courts.

Creating a monopoly type Healthcare system is not only going to be devistating to consumers (patients) and doctors, it is going to create even further problems economically due to the tax increase.. Raising taxes makes no sense in this economic circumstance the USA is in at the current moment!!
HC should be able to compete for your business and it should not be imposed as a requirement for you to purchase a specific healthcare provider or insurer

implement a strictly preventive program initially and then add on other benefits according to the country's ability to pay for them (according to votes) in what the conservative philosopher Karl Popper called "piecemeal social engineering."

Make everyone eligible for Medicare to provide basic health care coverage. For those who want something better, they can buy supplemental insurance form the insurance companies.

i'd cap the amount of money all the health care executives make annually. cap the cost of drugs as well as amount of hospital stays for starters...

What in the constitution gives the government that kind of authority?

did u read the question? the question is "how would you handle health care reform?" I stated some of my solutions....

Did I read the question? I wrote the question.

I am asking whether you think it's appropriate to violate the constitution in order to implement your plan. It's not enough to say a line and have the end of the discussion; if you really want to that kind of plan implemented then you're going to have to have lots of discussions on the topic and see how it could be done, if it even could be done.

that's a different question. 1st I'm not sure its a violation of the constitution; especially after the supreme court upheld the law. 2nd the system is broken and needs fixing. y, should the ceo of an insurance company make more than $10 million annually when his company doesn't make anything? then they get paid bonuses based on total amount of payouts (the less the pay out the more they get paid). 3rd, we pay way to much 4 the cost of medicines. companies like pfizer should make albatross profits at the expense of the elderly & sick. my daughter had foot surgery last year & a 90 min procedure and a overnight stay in the hospital shouldn't cost $30k...

They upheld Obamacare based on the individual mandate being a tax (on the middle class, which violates Obama's promise), not because of the commerce clause.

It's not a matter of why they should or should not be paid at that level, it's a matter of whether or not the federal government has the kind of authority to mandate such things.

doesn't matter the language. the supreme court's job is 2 deal w/the constitutionality of laws &....

let insurance companies compete nationwide...

and work towards single payor universal coverage. It is stupid to have to pay almost double what other industrialized countries pay.

Which nation do you think you would want to model the program after the most? North Korea? Finland? Canada?

Canada has universal healthcare but if you look at their tax rate, it's actually pretty low. Their top marginal rate is lower than ours. Canada is too liberal and PC IMO but I'd by now probably rather live there than the modern US.

Maybe a combination of all of the above? Considering we pay close to double what other countries pay, we should be able to provide broader coverage than what most receive in this country at a lower cost. Now that would be true reform.

...especially to then be ranked as only 14th best in health care among industrialized nations.

With about 15% not covered and probably doomed to an early death. So very Christian of those who are against health care reform.

Those opposed will tell you that charity will tend to that 15% and do in fact give more to charities than liberal thinkers. Still I agree with your take; how can a "civilized" society not tend its ill. But I support all preventive measures and believe we should fund only those curative measures that we can afford, according to our votes. Fiscal irresponsibility could doom us all.

Those health fairs are so good in meeting their needs. I am just glad that I will never have to go through such charity.

One of the major problems of our current system is that too much care is provided in order to justify some equipment that was purchased. A case in point involved New York city where within a 5 block radius there were 5 super advanced MRI machines. Well these machines have to be justified so doctors were encouraged to use them even though they were not really needed.

Of course preventative medicine is a cause for our health care mess.

I assume you meant "the absence of" preventive medicine is a cause of our health care mess. It's the very fastest and most sure means of bringing down costs. But that doesn't serve the fiscal interests of doctors, lawyers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, etc.

Well I meant preventative as in preventing law suits so doctors have to cover themselves with paper, and equipment use.