Obamacare ruling is just the beginning !

I'm still in shock over the ruling handed down by the SCOTUS today.  We should all be honest with ourselves, this decision was expected.  It has already been decided that the government can pretty much regulate any enterprise it chooses and tax anything it wants.  The solution is easy, of course, we the people have to elect those who intend to adhere to the limited government principles on which our Constitution stands.  We are the problem, not the courts or even the legislature.  Elections have consequences !!  I'm a physician, so I would like to take this opportunity to offer my simple solution to the healthcare problem.  This solution is simple and does not require over 2400 pages!

1.  Tort reform.  Cap non-economic damages, eliminate claims made policies for physicians and transition to occurance based policies offered across state lines for all licensed physicians.  Establish arbitration panels to assess for malpractice and loser pays court costs.

2.  Catastrophic medical insurance plans.  To cover unexpected medical illness or injury.  Deductibles and co-insurance offered on a sliding scale dependent on income and offered across state lines.  Low income individuals could still have it subsidized by the government. The cost to be tax deductible to the individual and not the employer thereby allowing portability.

3.  Health saving accounts that are tax deductible to the individual and not the employer so that it is also portable to be used for any medical expenses including doctor visits.

4.  Physicians and their practices should be tax exempt enterprises like religious institutions.

5.  Charity care.  Physicians would be encouraged to donate time in their specialty to a local charity hospital in  return for malpractice insurance coverage for their practices.

6.  Streamline practitioner databases and licensing/credentialing databases so that movement of physicians to areas of need can be expedited and encouraged.

7.  Choice.  Transition all government plans including medicare and medicaid to a combination of catastrophic and HSA plans which allow each individual to pick the amount and nature of coverage provided based on an individual's requirements.

8.  Any governmental subsidies should be targeted to an individual, not bureaucratic organizations or health maintenance groups/hospitals.  An individual would get X amount of subsidy to decide how and where to allocate the resources NOT the government.

9.   Eliminate the income tax.  As an alternative, a flat tax of no more than 10% and closure of loop holes.  So that low and middle income people can afford to participate in their own healthcare decisions.

10.  Eliminate the requisite federal governmental departments that are no longer necessary.

Enjoy!