America's Health Care Crisis Solved: Money-Saving Solutions, Coverage for Everyone

ISBN-13: 9780470275726 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 272 str.

J. Patrick Rooney; Dan Perrin

Opis

America's Health Care Crisis Solved highlights the major pitfalls of our current health care system and shows why, without changes, health care costs will soon demolish the American economy as well as the opportunity to receive quality care. However, contrary to the increasingly popular idea of a government health plan, the alternative presented by authors J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin brings the self-interest of you, the American consumer, into the equation.

Recenzje

"A welcome addition to the literature. Unlike many books written on health care these days, this one provides concrete assistance to real consumers. Pat Rooney and Dan Perrin should be congratulated for taking us to the next level of patient empowerment."–– Consumers for Health Care Choices

Spis treści

Preface xiii

Introduction xvii

PART 1 REALITIES

Chapter 1 No Money, No Health Care 3

Who Can Afford to Get Sick? 3

A Helicopter View of Health Care Financing 4

The Good Bad News 5

No More Business as Usual 6

Chapter 2 Why the Money s Running Out 9

No Room at the Inn 9

Standard Operating Procedure 10

The Motive Is Profit 11

The Problem Is Greed 12

On the Front Lines with Nora Johnson 13

Chapter 3 A New Scarlet Letter 21

A Lady in Red 21

Who Are the Uninsured? 22

The Danger of Secondhand Smoke 23

Injustice for All 23

Chapter 4 Why Nationalized Health Care Is No Cure–All 27

The HMO Idea 27

An Idea Rejected 28

Phoenix Rising? 28

HillaryCare II 29

O Canada 33

The Cost of Inefficiency 35

God Save the Queen 36

Look No Further 37

New York, New York 37

Florida, Here We Come 38

The Evidence Speaks 39

PART II STRATEGIES

Chapter 5 Fair Care 43

Three Keys to Make Fair Care Work 45

Congressional Action 47

Two Crucial Points on Fair Care 48

Fair Care Effect on Employers 48

Fair Care Effect on Employees 48

The State of the Union Proposal 48

Chapter 6 Give Seniors What They Want (and Save Money Doing It): An Innovative Approach to Medicare 51

Part D of Medicare: Prescription Drugs for Seniors 52

The Future of Medicare 53

Defining the Terms 53

Drug Money 54

An Unfunded Mandate 55

A Bureaucratic Snafu 55

Cost Comparison 56

Saving the U.S. Treasury Money 59

How Much Could Our Country Save? 60

Give Seniors What They Want 61

Too Good to Be True? 61

How Much Money in Each Senior s Hands? 62

Chapter 7 Give Control to Consumers through HSAs 65

Back to the Future 65

One Experience 66

HSAs Today 67

A Quick Overview 67

Health Care Freedom 69

A Dollar–for–Dollar Comparison 70

The Best Interest of the Consumer 70

An IRA on Steroids 72

The Truth Be Told 73

A Word about Family Deductibles 76

Republicans versus Democrats 76

A Legitimate HSA Weakness 79

Three Mistakes Employers Make 79

A Response to Mr. Rangel 81

What Does the Evidence Say? 82

A Side Note 83

What Congress Still Needs to Do 83

Chapter 8 Establish Fair Medical Prices 87

Which Price Tag? 87

What s a Reasonable Price? 89

What Can We Conclude? 91

How to Defend Yourself against Hospital Harassment 91

What s a UB–04 or a UB–92? 95

Where to Get the Medicare Information 96

Now You re a Royal Pain 97

Sounds Good, But Does It Work? 98

Do You Need a Lawyer? 99

The Key to Health Care Reform 99

Chapter 9 Make Medical Prices Transparent: An Innovative Approach to Pricing Health Care 101

Between a Rock and a Hard Place 101

Why Not Be Honest? 102

Cost Reporting 102

Truth Detector 103

Do Hospitals Lose Money on the Uninsured? 103

Who s Losing Money? 104

Are We Really Too Dumb to Understand? 104

What Needs to Change 105

Legislation Now Pending 106

Medicare Starts to Move 107

And Not Just the Hospitals 107

Chapter 10 Build Risk Pools: An Innovative Approach to Individual Health Insurance 109

New York State of Mind 109

No Picnic in the Garden State 110

Ferrari Pricing 113

One Way to Cope 114

Compassion versus Common Sense 114

Casting the Net 115

Double Incentive 115

The Problem for Small Businesses 117

A Future Answer for Small Businesses 117

A More Immediate Answer 118

List Bill 118

The Rest of the Story 119

Chapter 11 Build a National Marketplace: An Innovative Approach to Individual Health Insurance 121

Do You eBay? 122

Nothing Matters More 122

Roadblocks to Freedom 123

Health Care Choice Act 124

Not in My Backyard 124

An Idea for the People 125

Let s Get It Done 125

Chapter 12 Make Basic Health Care Cheaper and More Convenient: An Innovative Approach to Health Care Delivery 127

What Is a Quick Care Clinic? 128

The Customer Is King 129

Calling Dr. Nurse 129

You ve Got Care 130

Chapter 13 Do It Right the First Time: An Innovative Approach to Wellness 131

Dr. Paul Ellwood 131

The Right Goal 132

The Right Kind of Competition 132

It Is Your Health 133

Lose the Gatekeepers 133

Get Well Soon 134

Chapter 14 Wrapping It All Up 135

Appendix A Public Testimony of Dr. Gerard Anderson 137

Appendix B Memorandum of Case Law Precedents Showing Hospitals Can Charge Only Reasonable Prices 151

Appendix C An Example of a Legal Complaint against a Hospital for Unreasonable Charges 155

Appendix D Executive Order: Promoting Quality and Efficient Health Care in Federal Government–Administered or –Sponsored Health Care Programs 169

Appendix E S.173, Medicare Savings Account Legislation Introduced by U.S. Senator Inhofe (R–OK) and U.S. Senator DeMint (R–SC) 173

Appendix F The Common Sense Guide to Health Savings Accounts by Roy Ramthun 179

Notes 227

Index 237

O autorze

Dan Perrin is the author of HSA Road Rules, known as the bible of the HSA industry by bankers and insurers. He is President of the HSA Coalition and is widely acknowledged to have been a key player in the passage of every piece of HSA legislation that has made its way through Congress and been signed into law by the President in the last decade. Perrin is one of the nation′s top HSA experts and has been quoted on the subject in every major newspaper in the United States.

Blurb

Praise for America′s Health Care Crisis Solved

"All Presidential candidates as well as everyone else must read this insightful book. Rooney and Perrin brilliantly show how the health care crisis can be positively solved in a way that will give the best of all worlds more health care at less cost."
Steve Forbes, Chairman & CEO, Forbes

"Pat Rooney is the man who came up with the concept of Health Savings Accounts as a way to cut medical costs, give power to medical consumers, and provide health coverage to rich and poor alike without either bankrupting the nation, ruining the best health care available anywhere in the world, or forcing providers and patients alike to dance to the tune of bureaucrats with little empathy for either. This book analyzes the health care ′crisis′ so much on the lips of politicians these days and provides a solution that reasonable people should ponder as they work their way through the overheated and often wrong–headed solutions advanced by leading politicians of both parties."
David A. Keene, Chairman, The American Conservative Union

"Rooney and Perrin have changed the course of health care in the United States, and they did it by bringing Americans the best tax break in the code: tax–free deposits, tax–free withdrawals, and tax–free interest in the form of Health Savings Accounts. Anyone who is going to be involved in the second great health care debate (the first being HillaryCare) should read this very readable book."
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

"J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin know that much of what we call the health care ′crisis′ would go away if we transferred direct control over the flow of health care dollars from big institutions to individuals and families. How? Enact a refundable health care tax credit for every American; introduce medical savings accounts into Medicare; and make health care prices, especially in hospitals, transparent. An excellent, hands–on guide for consumers and voters, this book comes just in time for the 2008 Presidential elections."
Edwin J. Feulner, PhD, President, The Heritage Foundation