Dr. Louis Frayser is a family friend and a great man. He's one of those incredible old guys who remembers his great grandparents, which in his case means people born in the mid 1800s. His family is from Macon Georgia, and generally speaking he knows a thing or two. He's just what you would expect from an old country doctor who makes housecalls, a heart of gold. He can be an irascible old coot, but what I love about Dr Lou the most is his insatiable curiosity and willingness to be philosophical. We've had some really fascinating theological discussions - he's one of those people for whom you can't wait to find their considered opinion.
Imagine my surprise when he told me last Sunday that he started a blog and has put together a proposal for Universal Health Care, among other things.
Well it turns out that his blog isn't exactly bloggy, but it is on the web and his proposal is a rather massive piece. Not blog length at all, but rather comprehensive. So I have promised to pub him up and give him the benefit of my ear and popularity. Moreover since I'm trying to figure out the whole thing, I've decided to take pieces of his thesis apart for analysis and discussion. To that end, and towards a new direction at Cobb, I'm adding the category of Health Care.
I put the entire proposal up at the Conservative Brotherhood site, and Frayser will be my first expert to help me digest this entire subject. You can't help but love the audacity of his plan:
And so, beginning next week, I'll start talking about health care and setting up a framework for analysis and understanding.It is almost common knowledge that our health care system is in a state of chaos. Dominated by governmental bureaucracies and the bureaucratic maze created by the various mega health maintenance organizations, insurance companies and a supporting cast of hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and laboratories. Costs spiral and our federal deficit swells. Worse yet, those needing and seeking health care are often put off, delayed or denied the needed care. The bean counters in the various bureaucracies decide who gets care and, if they get care, what care consumers (patients) get. Medicare and Medicaid costs, including pharmaceutical costs, are like a runaway train. These costs comprise the lions� share of the federal deficit. This has been well documented in many writings published in the New York Times and other major papers and by television money reports. Efforts to positively, definitively, and permanently correct the health care problem have failed. To date, changes in the system proposed by politicians and others have been little more than Band-Aids applied to a wound hemorrhaging money. As a result, the taxpayer is drowning in red ink. China, who floats a huge piece of our deficit, has a choke hold on our economy.
The purpose of this proposal is to offer a completely new approach to health care in our country. This system rests upon the following principles:
A. The principle of competition and right to choose, are central to American capitalism and central to this proposed health care system.
B. The concept of �free care/free medicines� is completely and permanently eliminated from this system.
C. Revision of present methods of reimbursements that will result in a major, major reduction in health care costs and hence a major, major reduction in the federal deficit.
D. We can provide universal health care for every American citizen. However, to date very little discussion has been offered regarding the role of universal health care in the reduction of health care costs. I propose to do so.
E. Relieve private industry of a significant portion of health care costs for employees.
F. We should support an existing mechanism, community clinics, for providing comprehensive health for everyone including those indigent persons who don�t qualify for universal health care.
It is my belief that this proposal, which rests on the principles cited, will remove the costly nightmare that is today�s health care system. The specifics of the system now follow.
Recent Comments