{"id":7121,"date":"2014-03-01T15:30:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T19:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncdata.wpengine.com\/?p=7121"},"modified":"2017-11-02T14:43:43","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T18:43:43","slug":"free-market-fixes-could-still-save-american-health-care-by-elaina-f-george-md","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2014\/03\/01\/free-market-fixes-could-still-save-american-health-care-by-elaina-f-george-md\/","title":{"rendered":"Free-Market Fixes Could Still Save American Health Care, by Elaina F. George, MD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"george_sm\"As “law of the land,” ObamaCare has already fundamentally changed American health care. Despite the partisan bickering and disastrous rollout, government has successfully inserted itself between doctors and patients \u2014 controlling everything from doctors’ treatment options to patient choices about coverage.<\/p>\n

A group effort including the Obama Administration, liberal lawmakers, insurers, hospital companies and the pharmaceutical industry broke the doctor-patient relationship. But free-market alternatives remain to re-establish it and fix our health care woes.<\/p>\n

While politicians focus on winning at all costs, a transfer of health and of wealth has begun. A two-tier system is evolving. It consists of those trapped under ObamaCare and those who can afford to opt-out to pursue the best treatment available.<\/p>\n

ObamaCare’s foundational principle that everything will be rosy if everyone has health care is fundamentally flawed because having insurance is no guarantee of quality care.<\/p>\n

The myth of unscrupulous doctors causing skyrocketing costs was dinned into our collective consciousness. It’s not true. In fact, an independent, private physician is actually the most cost-effective option \u2014 giving patients more power. The physician and the patient would have provided a powerful resource to fix a broken system. The former, acting as an advocate for patients, and the latter driven to find the best and most cost-effective health care.<\/p>\n

Academic remedies such as interstate policy sales and keeping youth on their parents’ policies until the age of 26 are great talking points, but they don’t address how much insurers can charge for out-of-pocket fees or how they can deny coverage for certain care and procedures.<\/p>\n

Instead of making the doctor-patient relationship the core of efficient, excellent, individualized, cost-effective health care, the middleman is now empowered. Bureaucratic layers of regulations will inevitably increase costs, borne by patients through longer wait times, rationed care and replacement of their trusted physician with less experienced physician assistants and nurse practitioners.<\/p>\n

There is even a movement toward allowing pharmacists to write prescriptions and nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform certain surgical procedures to increase access and cut costs. There is no way, however, to calculate the cost of a missed diagnosis or botched procedure in this one-size-fits-all conveyor belt-driven medical system now being constructed.<\/p>\n

But the two-tier ObamaCare system can be broken by promoting free-market medicine, which is still alive and thriving.<\/p>\n

Removing insurance companies and government middlemen would cause patient costs to drop precipitously. Patients once again could choose and have a quality relationship with a doctor, get procedures they want and know their costs up front.<\/p>\n

Free market options are myriad and include:<\/p>\n