Simple fixes for health care

Four ways to effectively reform health care and lower health care costs are:

1. Fix Medicare and Medicaid. Monitor the systems to eliminate the $70 billion to $120 billion paid out each year for fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims. Set more realistic rates: Medicare and Medicaid currently pay only about 86 percent of the full cost of medical treatment and the difference is tacked onto our bills. Also it can take 12 to 18 months before doctors get their payments from the government.

2. Tort reform. Put a limit on the amount of punitive damages doctors and hospitals may have to pay in a lawsuit. Liability insurance can cost a doctor $100,000 or more a year. This expense is passed on to his patients.

3. Insurance reform. Insurance companies are mandated by state laws to include certain provisions in your policy whether you want them or not. Health insurance would be a lot cheaper if you could buy only the coverage you need and want.

4. Illegal aliens. Secure our borders and send illegal aliens back to their own countries. Medical care for illegal aliens is costing us scores of billions of dollars each year in higher medical cost and taxes.

There is absolutely no reason to trash the world's best health care system and turn it into a fiscally-unsustainable socialized medical disaster from which our president and representatives have conveniently exempted themselves.

Donald Froelich

Mount Prospect