Here is Rand Paul's healthcare plan. It's 4 pages long. It simplifies the entire process, removes federal bureaucracy, and lowers costs. EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT!

Problem is, healthcare is not a simple problem. A better solution would be to fix the causes, not the symptoms:

  • Cap all non-specialist doctor salaried-exempt wages at $150k max. annually

  • Make hospitals cover all insurance for all staff. Cap max damages for healthcare-related lawsuits to $1 mil. max., per person, and $2.5 mil. per lifetime. So if you get in a car wreck as a kid and get $1 million settlement, and then get stitched up wrong as an adult after surgery, you can get a max of $1 again. After that, the max you can get is $500k and whatever medical costs are needed to treat issues. If mistreatment is ruled as purposefully criminal (a mad doctor is butchering people), you can get 5x the normal payout. But if that exceeds $2.5 mil. lifetime, you can't get anything but money to cover medical care after that.

  • Make non-profit hospitals invest 50% minimum of their purchases into providing free health care/medicine/etc. to the local community residents, vs. 100% into facilities/property costs or cronyism admin staff costs. So if they want to build a $10 million wing to the hospital over 3 years, they need to provide $10 million in free health insurance to anyone who needs in the community during that same time, who's a legit taxpayer. Maybe cap the help amount to $10k each person. But they'd have to use up all 50% before doing any other project. They also cannot stockpile cash beyond $50 million, at any given time.

  • Make a law that says no generic drug can be over $50/prescription, and all FDA-approved drugs have to have a generic version as well at the time of their launch. Refillable inserts/injections/etc. also will never exceed $50/standard dose. Doses/prescription amounts are based on 30-day amounts. Equipment costs for simple devices (like blood testers, crutches, etc.) should never exceed $100/item. For mid-range things, like standard wheelchairs and breathing machines, it's $500 max. For more expensive things (like fancier wheelchairs, motorized scooters, etc.) the cap is $1500 per device that the patient owes. The hospital and/or govt. must pay the difference. These costs are only for items offered by hospital pharmacy/store/supplier/etc. If you go to Amazon and want to buy a fancy wheelchair for $1500, sorry.

  • Based on state population, pay for tuition/schooling and their wages for 7 years after graduation ala Northern Exposure, for every 1000 people in a community. The hospitals are then responsible for hiring staff/providing facilities/etc.

  • For specialists/surgeons/etc. cap their maximum exempt salary at $250k annually. Hospitals will have to provide their insurance also.

  • Now, in order to operate as a public, non-profit hospital, each hospital in an area needs to have, for each 50,000 pop. amount in a geographical area, a minimum of ~20 doctors on staff, several surgeons, and at least 2 of each major specialist profession needs to be employed, minimum. For towns with smaller hospitals, specialists/surgeons don't have to be employed, but 1 doctor per 1000 pop. needs to be employed.

  • If you need specialized, long-term treatment/special care/special equipment/etc. you can get that taken care of, at the govt.'s expense, as long as 3 specialists employed from different hospital networks sign off situation/diagnosis/treatment/care. In these cases This combats fraud, and ensures patient long term health if possible.

  • Lastly, regardless of medical bill total for any patient, no matter how many bills/high of total you have, the monthly amount you have to pay will never exceed 15% of income, based on after-tax amount, even if your wages are garnished. And being in default, as long as payments are made, cannot be used to harm credit score. If you make $1,000 mo., your medical bills will never exceed 150/mo. If you make $10k, you'll never pay more than $1,500. If no payment is made at all, no coverage except ER work is done.

  • People at or below poverty level can get free treatment/medicine, but they must do min. 16 hrs. of hospital work each week, either in-person or remotely, if they cannot pay. This can be volunteer-type work w/ nursing staff, cleaning duties, hospital kitchen staff, patient drivers, etc. or if they can't come in, they can do electronic-related records work, patient FAQ website/phone support, etc. If they refuse to work, they must pay 15% of bill due each month, no exceptions. If they fail to pay, nothing but ER work is covered.

  • For everyone else, or people who want special treatment, or their own out-of-hospital doctor, or name-brand drugs, they have to pay the bill 100%.

  • Anyone over 65 gets free medical treatment, up to $100k annually. For kids under 13, they get free medical treatment up to $10k annually.

  • Any insurance that covers public hospitals must cap annual deductible per person at no more than $1,000 max. and $150/max premium for services done/medicines give/etc. at public hospitals.

There ya go.

/r/The_Donald Thread Parent Link - paul.senate.gov