Much of the news in recent days revolves around the President’s efforts to reform our health care. Thus far, he hasn’t been very successful. So I’d like to offer my assistance to the President. I propose five key reforms that would help President Obama get a bill passed that would reform our existing health care system, and lower the health care costs of all Americans.

Health Reform #1 – Competition

There are over 1,300 companies providing health insurance in the United States, but we only have access to a few due to both state and federal regulations. Open the doors, Mr. President, and let companies compete for our business. Competition forces companies to do a better job, and offer a better service at a better price or go out of business. Competition works in every other area of business – let’s try it with health care.

Some have said that the President’s initiative would be competition, but when public options compete with private options there is no fair competition.  In essence it is health care you pay for, or healthcare the government pays for (we somehow forget that we are paying for it either way when it is merely withheld from our payroll in the form of taxes).  If someone offered you free healthcare or care you had to pay for, which would you choose? The very notion of insurance is built upon a large pool of people buying in, and the calculated risk that they will not all need insurance at the same time, but if more people pull out of private insurance and opt for the public option, then the pool shrinks, private insurance is no longer a profitable venture unless costs increase, eventually companies stop offering the insurance, and all that we are left with is a public health care option.

Open the doors, Mr. President, and let private companies compete for our business.

Health Reform #2 – Conscience

The sanctity of human life is a core conviction for hundreds of millions of Americans. No one should be forced to pay for abortions with their tax dollars.  It’s a tragedy that 40% of all abortions in New York State are paid for through your tax dollars under the Medicaid program.

Some advocates of the President’s health care initiative are suggesting that the bill won’t pay for abortions, yet when Republicans tried to amend the current House of Representatives’ health reform bill (HR 3200) to specifically exclude funding for abortion-related services, the amendment was defeated.

While the President said that under his plan the government would not fund abortions, Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-MT) bill explicitly includes abortion and would subsidize health plans that cover all elective abortions. These subsidies for plans covering abortion goes well beyond the status quo of preventing federal funds either from paying for abortion or subsidizing plans that cover abortion, as under current laws governing Medicaid, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan and the State Children's Health Insurance Plan. The Capps amendment inserted government funding of abortion into the House bill, and now the Baucus bill would add abortion as well.

If a health care bill passes that does not specifically deny funding for abortion, it won’t be 40%, but 100% of all abortions paid for by your tax dollars.

Conscience, Mr. President, must be a key ingredient in any successful health care reform act.  By taking funding of abortion off the table, everyone can come, and work on passing a bill this year. But if abortion services are to be paid for with tax dollars, then the pro-life community must oppose the bill regardless of what other reforms may exist in the legislation.

Health Reform #3 – Choice

Americans are accustomed to choice. We care about the ability to choose the health insurance plan that best meets our needs. We value being able to choose doctors we’re comfortable with, and the ability to make decisions directing our treatment. Choice means freedom – something that we are very afraid of losing under the current proposals.

Frankly, the idea of a government agency in charge of our health care scares us. President Obama may not actually be proposing a “Death Panel,” as some have suggested, but Americans are nervous when they hear talk of end of life decisions and saving costs of expensive treatments.

We want to be able to make these decisions ourselves – with the advice of our doctor, family and minister.  We do not want to be reduced to a number on some accountant’s sheet and have him or some other government bureaucrat making decisions for us.

Asking us to give up this freedom is way too high a price.  And this is why the President is having trouble passing the current proposal.

Health Reform #4 – Courts

Lawsuits have created chaos in the health care industry. Doctor are practicing defensive medicine, ordering numerous tests, to cover their tracks in case something goes wrong.

If a doctor makes a mistake, a patient should have a right to just compensation. We live in a day however, when if your doctor makes a mistake, you hit the jackpot.  It shouldn’t be this way.

This is one of the main causes of increased medical costs.  Doctors not only order extra tests, they also have to pay high malpractice insurance premiums.

Tort reform – simply setting reasonable limits for damages would go a long way to bringing our health care costs down.

Health Reform #5 – Cleansing

President Obama stated in a speech before Congress on September 9, 2009:

…We've estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of waste and abuse.  Right now, too much of the hard-earned savings and tax dollars we spend on health care don't make us any healthier.  That's not my judgment – it’s the judgment of medical professionals across this country.  And this is also true when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid.

I’m not sure that the President can pay for his entire proposed plan by eliminating waste and abuse, but I am all for cleaning up the system.

The reality is we don’t need any new legislation to start cleaning up Medicare and Medicaid.  If the system is corrupt, then clean it up.  Go after those who create the waste and fraud that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.  The President can order the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute doctors and hospitals that cheat.

Reforming health care does not have to be complicated – it certainly does not require a 1,000 page bill that no one reads.It could begin with words my mother taught me about any mess that I made – “Clean it up!”