Quote:That's what I've seen. The providers and the insurance companies are gaming the system. The whole concept of insurance is part of the problem, since it's really not insurance against catastrophe, but an unlimited use fee. Medical costs would be a lot lower if people paid out of their own pockets and insurance just covered catastrophic problems. There's no competition for price when insurance companies just follow Medicare price controls.


To answer the original question, here are some ideas:


1. The ACA should be scrapped, completely. It's too flawed to fix.


2. Most company-provided insurance will cover pre-existing conditions if the person had prior coverage when the condition was discovered. This is a reasonable thing to codify into law.

3. Individuals should get full tax credit for heath care costs including insurance. Corporations should pay no taxes (the customers actually pay the taxes through higher prices anyway), so a corporate tax write off would not be a factor. This would move the responsibility for health insurance to the individual, resulting in more competition and lower rates.


4. Eliminate the requirement that hospitals have to treat non-citizens. Health insurance costs in California are way higher than they are in Florida for this very reason.


5. Make most drugs non-prescription. That would eliminate numerous otherwise unnecessary trips to the doctor. Amoxicillin for childhood ear infections is a prime example of this. It was absurd that Prilosec was suddenly found out to be safe as a non-prescription drug just as the patent expired.


6. The US should limit the drug prices to the lowest price a company charges among the ten highest GDP countries where a drug is sold. If a company claims it can't sell the drug profitably at that price, then they can raise the price elsewhere (or not sell it there if the other country balks at an increase) to compensate.

5. Make most drugs non-prescription. That would eliminate numerous otherwise unnecessary trips to the doctor. Amoxicillin for childhood ear infections is a prime example of this. It was absurd that Prilosec was suddenly found out to be safe as a non-prescription drug just as the patent expired.


Absolutely not. Amoxicillin is already over prescribed as it is, and now you want to grant the ordinary citizen the ability to treat their own bacterial infections. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. We already have a antibiotic resistance crisis. Let's pour gasoline on the fire. No.

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