Elimination of ‘Public Option’ Threw Consumers to the Insurance Wolves

[Amimnoch]

15. Even with the single payer option, it was never healthcare reform, just health insurance reform.

What we REALLY need, more than anything is health care reform, not just insurance.

The plan I've laid out in each one of these threads I've come across for years, and have sent to my representatives:

Health insurance reform alone does not address the medical needs of the people who need health care the most. We need more hospitals, clinics, and hospital staff. We already have, right now, networks of charity hospitals, University hospitals, and free clinics. These have been getting pillaged and plundered by cost reductions for decades, but even so, you'd be hard pressed to find a single city in the US with a population of 150,000 or more that doesn't have some sort of free clinic/University/charity hospital available. That's the good news. The bad news.. these places are under staffed, under funded, and in such a dire state of affairs that nobody who is ill wants to be caught dead in them (or die in them as it would stand).

My proposal:
1. Infuse the funding for these places. Pick 10x military bases around the world that no longer serve a viable function, and redistribute the funds to support these facilities.
2. Just as the military has ROTC and various medical scholarships to fund the staffing of military hospitals, expand those programs for the civilian clinics and hospitals.
3. Path to success programs for inner city public school children, and public school children coming from low income families who show the best aptitude. Provide University programs for these children to be the next generation of Nurses, Dr.'s, PA's, Hospital administrators, and specialists. Tie to these degrees a requirement of a proportional number of years of required service at free clinics, and public health care facilities and hospitals at a reasonable salary.

SOOO many more benefits than just a health insurance reform. Available free, or cost controlled healthcare for all. A way out for poor families (if just one child of a struggling working poor family can make it in this program, this doesn't just help the kid but in most cases the entire family benefits!). A way for the free clinics/hospitals to actually become an appealing option for those who don't have the luxury of Cadillac healthcare plans.