Health Care Reform?

Real health care reform, meant for its users rather than its creators, would be very different than the current proposals.

In my opinion, what we need is a completely separate, parallel system.

The first requirement is to firmly define what 'basic health care' really means, and exactly what medical care and services should be provided to everyone.

Once that is done, then establish publicly-owned clinics to provide only those basic services. Any elective surgery or other optional procedures would still be done by the existing commercial system.

The clinics would be staffed by people on a straight salary system, with no pay-per-procedure as in the current commercial system. In addition, I say that all the medical staff should be educated in dedicated, publicly-owned schools with specialized courses for this specific field. This is to avoid competition with existing medical schools. The medical practitioners in my proposed system would be something like the current Physician's Assistant, but with a different title.

Any educational institution could be allowed to teach the courses and grant the degrees but the course outlines, plans and curriculum would be nationally standardized and all graduates would be required to pass the same tests.

I visualize the new public system providing basic care such as vaccinations, pre-natal examinations, patching up cuts and setting broken bones after accidents, and so on. No fancy diagnostic technology beyond basic X-rays - no MRI's or CAT scans. Those are for the commercial system.