Eliminate the middle man, HMOs

Health care is out of control where at least 40 million people, including my household, are without good quality health care that the president and Congress currently enjoy. The solution to health care is to start regulating fees down to outpatient amounts, such as $400 for an MRI, instead of the high-profit hospital fee of $1,000 for the same MRI.

Today, the hospitals in DuPage County are similar to the palaces that billionaires live in. The hospitals are making too much profit. Congress should pass federal regulation reducing all operating costs by 25 to 50 percent of U.S. hospitals. Presently, it is cheaper to pay a funeral bill than a hospital bill.

Torte reform is also due for an overhaul. For example, to insure a doctor’s private practice in the Chicago metro area, costs roughly $27,000 a year. To insure the same doctor’s private practice in the Milwaukee metro area, costs are roughly $3,000 a year. The reason for the huge difference in insurance premiums, is that Wisconsin places settlement caps on suffering and/or punitive damages, and Illinois does not.

Also, we should review the Swedish, French, German, or Swiss plans that are nationalized, and/or, privatized plans and cherry pick the positive aspects of those plans that would benefit the U.S. taxpayers, and eliminate the negative aspects that would cost U.S. taxpayers 10 to 20 percent of their annual income. In addition, review the Canadian and British nationalized health care features that did save money. For example, Canada purchases pharmaceutical drugs at deep discount prices much in the same high volume purchase arrangement that the Veterans Affairs purchases its pharmaceutical drugs.

I believe another approach is to go back to the pre-lawsuit days of the 1960s and 1970s when health care was affordable, and eliminate the middle man, the HMO.

Phil Heirendt

Warrenville