U.S. Health Care Needs to Become Non-Profit

[pathansen]

No more temptation to keep people sick to make a profit. Thus, fewer unnecessary surgeries and costly treatments that don't really work, less suppression of inexpensive cures and no more CEOs making huge salaries off of the suffering of others.
We need more research into preventative and natural medicine. Also, maybe study the less expensive health care systems of Canada, Europe, China and other countries.

As a result, US health coverage would become significantly cheaper and UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE would become much easier to achieve.

AN ALTERNATIVE IDEA:
Have 2 different types of health coverage: A basic coverage that would cover all U.S. citizens with less expensive yet effective treatments . Those who preferred the traditional, more expensive, medicine would pay extra.

What do you think?

[JDPriestly]

1. Won't work. Medical malpractice not to give care that meets

the standard of care in the field if failure to give that standard of care causes harm. A doctor is obliged to give a certain standard of care to his or her patients. You can't have a cheap standard and a luxury standard. You are not buying hairspray of fingernail polish.

[pathansen]

3. Less expensive care does not mean inferior care

Americans have been brainwashed to believe that the more money you spend the more you get.
This is not always true with health care.
For example, in Canada, it only costs $50/month for health coverage for someone from out of the country. Yet, Canadians often have better health care than we do without the more expensive treatments.
Also, alternatives are usually harmless so no need to worry much about medical malpractice. Lots of harm has resulted from using certain dangerous drugs and surgeries, much more than any natural treatments.

[Hieronymus]

2. Terribly unfair .. ridiculous really.

[pathansen]

4. ??? Are you saying that no coverage is better than basic coverage?

I'm saying if we get profits out of medicine, it might become much cheaper and thus much easier to get Universal Health Coverage.
Also, having some sort of basic coverage might actually give people better care than the more dangerous drugs and some unnecessary surgeries.

[Selatius]

5. Your plan seems redundant.

Most people are looking to cut down on health care costs.

If you offer Medicare to everybody, which is cheaper per capita than private insurance, you put that system in direct competition with companies like Aetna and Cigna and United Health and so on. On a cost basis, Medicare would drive all of them out of business because Medicare has incredibly low operating costs.

You would end up with single-payer health care. Why make it two steps when you can simply make it one step by simply outlawing private health insurance instead of having a competition phase?

On edit: There is nothing wrong with single-payer, provided you follow France's model instead of doing it half-assed like Mitt Romney's health care plan in Massachusetts.