Very recently, Dr. Hal Scherz asked some tough questions that the American people should expect and deserve to have answered. The op-ed can be viewed here.

I forwarded this piece to may people, apologizing In Advance to three - who had told me 1. They had been "Offended" by some of my emails, or 2. Told me not to write again, or 3. Had told me they were Socialists.  I wrote that this was sent in the interests of education.  Read one interchange:

"Surprise this is not educational!!  Where is the information about a new idea about how to deal with insurance and health care.  It is blackballing someone that the republicants don’t like.  You think the doctor patient relationship hasn’t ALREADY changed in the last 10 years?  Of course it has.  This isn’t news.  And what is part of the problem, lawsuits and insurance, and what else?  You tell me you are the one in the trenches here?   Instead of blaming, and calling people names, come up with a solution.  Bob Perry, one of the main contributors to this group is a flaming Bushite builder from Texas, a huge anti Obama money man for the republicant party.     

Everyone agrees healthcare is a mess.  There’s a start.  What is going on with insurance and health care did not just start last year when Obama took over.  It has been a mess, it is a disaster.  So what’s the solution? You’re a doctor, you’re smart let’s hear one idea, all I ever hear from republicants is negative blaming.  Like one guy is the problem?!  The insurance companies are a huge part of this difficulty. 

Tell me your idea for a solution.  What’s one good idea that YOU have about how to handle health care and take care of the poor so that the emergency care isn’t where they go for help?  Stop talking about who and start talking about what.   If you have that idea, call your newly elected tea party representative and get him to fight for it.  Put that IDEA out in the newspaper.  Wouldn’t it be great if people were spreading ideas instead of hate and propaganda?  We might not agree, but at least there would be ideas instead of this hate propaganda."
 

My response: "I have many surprises in store for you -

1. In a Blog I have been writing since March or April, where I name names and 'call out' members of BOTH parties.

2. To tell you that I have been involved in trying to change things and prevent harm since 1984. (A major medical precept is "above all do no harm.") So - talking about real problems IS important - as well as asking for solutions.

3. H.W. Bush did have solutions I agreed with (as does John Goodman, (NCPA). Republicans have been pushing them since then (I deal with this in my Blog - HSA's, Medisave accounts, Tax equity, allowing the severing of insurance ownership from employment, so you own your personal health insurance just like you own your car insurance policy, etc.).

4. I did not write the Hal Scherz Op Ed, and he did not write it because he hates Democrats. Neither he nor I distributed it because we hate Democrats - although Democrats may have that knee jerk response. Now, having said that, it has been the Democrats who have stymied the ideas in #3 - esp. Ted Kennedy. Are you aware that as of July 1 you need prescriptions to use an HSA account to purchase NON-prescription medication? THAT is Obamacare and it is there to STOP HSA's and Kill that free market idea.

My first ten years in practice, if a patient told me there was a financial problem paying the usual charge, I told them 'Pay What they could Afford' - even if it was nothing. That was what the free market permitted - then. No longer.

The Feds are the reason I am leaving practice VERY soon. I won't be saving any more lives by finding very early melanomas, but I hope to help to save proper health care.

Read my Blogs and then see if you are still so angry.     www.Takebackmedicine.com/Truthserum

See the one titled "Infamous Quotes and Anecdotes: Naming Names" and you will see it is non-partisan - in spite of possible preconceptions. There is also one devoted to GOOD IDEAS, as well as educational ones about PROBLEMS. If no one realizes there are problems, there will be no pressure to FIX them.

As planned and designed, Obamacare is beginning to devolve into a single, Government-run health plan, with rationing at its core. Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnkxIh62dQ&NR=1

Call it what you will (In Government, names are frequently changed to protect the guilty) – Universal Health Care, Single Payor, or Public Option – this will be Socialized Medicine with all of its warts left intact and untreated. 

A Democrat who is not toeing the party line, “Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., said the economics of dropping coverage are "about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private." * “Bredesen said last week that employers could save big money by dropping their health plans and sending workers to buy coverage in the exchange. They'd face a fine of $2,000 per worker, but that's still way less than the cost of providing health insurance. Employers could even afford to give workers a raise and still come out ahead, Bredesen wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.”

The government-generated, flawed system of employer-based coverage, in place for over 50 years, has grossly interfered with the free market. It has created perverse incentives by having us spend other peoples’ money all too freely on medical care, thereby driving up costs.

Employer-based coverage is all but dead in the water. It is the proverbial  “Dead Man Walking.” Now is the time for a ‘ALL Good Parties’ to ‘come to the Aid of their Men’ – you, me, and every other American. We can use Obamacare as a golden opportunity to reverse this artificially skewed ‘marketplace – If we get a real Conservative majority in place in D.C. Then we could accomplish what Bush senior wanted to do when he was President, and establish Medisave Accounts in conjunction with  tax equity. This would allow us to return to a free market in health care by leveling the playing field so everyone wold have the same tax advantage when purchasing heath care – not just employees. At the same time, we must ensure freedom from government restrictions on personal heath care expenditures.

We all need insurance. The vast majority of Americans cannot afford the big ticket items attached to catastrophic health care costs. Whenever a third party pays, as they must in those cases, there will be oversight. Since third parties always drive up costs, we should essay to avoid these middlemen for most routine care. We can – but the Democrats have successfully kept us from doing so because they want to control everything.

Saturday, October 23, there was a Town Hall meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, discussing the Health Care Freedom Act (Arizona SB 106), which would keep us from being forced into any specific insurance plan. Its author, Dr. Eric Novack, chaired the meeting. As luck would have it, a gentleman who Dr. Novack has debated from time to time was in attendance.

I found it remarkable that this man (‘Peter’) actually said that he trusted Government to look out for our best interests more than insurance companies. In the same breath, he admitted that he did not think people should be able to spend their own money on health care! (That remark did not sit well with the audience. Their gasps spoke volumes.)

I imagine Peter believes health care is a 'Right.' I wonder how he mentally squares that philosophy with a mindset forbidding one to spend hard-earned personal funds in the interests of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness??” (Many years ago, I queried former Az. Sate Senator, Dennis De Concini, about government control of health care. Mr. De Concini asked me if I felt “People should be left to fend for themselves?” Clearly, he, Obama, Clinton, and many Liberals think Government needs to do it all. They DO want to keep us from spending our money on our health care!)

There really are Collectivists who truly feel this way, as Dr. Novack wrote in a personal communication: “the thing about the No on 106 group is that, once you peel away the arguments that they have simply made up out of thin air, they are more than happy to talk about their real goals... an America where every health care decision and every health care dollar belongs in the hands of politicians, their cronies, and 'smart people', all of who believe they know more about your life than you do...”

How would I change the Medical Insurance markets if I were King? As per Dr. John Goodman (National Center for Policy Analysis), I would create Tax Equity, eliminating cost-savings for employer-sponsored health insurance. We would own our own insurance policies, and no one would lose their insurance if they changed jobs. I would remove Democrat restrictions on Medisave accounts. These would accrue interest tax free (when or economy recovers under a free market system), with those monies used for day to day expenses while allowing us to purchase inexpensive, high deductible, catastrophic policies.

I would enable us to purchase insurance across state lines. I would eliminate the McCarron-Ferguson Act, so insurance companies can no longer collude legally. We can provide vouchers and refundable deductibles under such a Medisave system for those who need a safety net. [Yes, I believe (as I think most of us do) that we need to help SOME Americans.]

All these changes would foster competition, and help reduce costs, while avoiding one-size-fits-no-one Government control by statistical bean counters who will ration our care by means of unaccountable Death Panels.

This system would still not provide everything for everyone - but it would be a lot better than the current plan.

I can see November from my New House.      I hope.

· Will New Health Care Law Put Job-Based Coverage at Risk?

Ricardo Alonso- Zaldivar

AP