Healthcare

Our health care delivery system is in crisis. As a surgeon for over 25 years, I have seen firsthand how the number of uninsured and underinsured in America has reached epidemic level. Those who have health insurance coverage face ever increasing prices, while the uninsured find it more and more difficult to access affordable coverage.

With no relief in sight, and the daunting prospect of more demand for health care as the baby boom generation enters retirement, it is essential that we fundamentally reform our health care financing and delivery structure. America needs to transition our health care system to create a viable individual health insurance market so patients have access to coverage that responds to their personal needs. It is time to restore portability, accessibility, affordability, and above all, patient choices to a fatally flawed system.

For decades, quality care has been drifting further away from patients, largely as a result of increased interference from non-medical personnel. Washington-directed health care policy has led to a firmly entrenched third-party system in which patients are at the mercy of employers or the government, who make disconnected health care decisions. This leaves the most important and personal decisions we make in the hands of an outside party, rather than with patients and their doctors – where they rightfully belong.

This government and employer-sponsored health coverage leaves patients with few choices, forced to accept one-size-fits-all health plans. As patients do not truly own their health coverage, insurers have little incentive to be responsive to patients. This creates health care plans that are rarely tailored to the individual needs of patients, while unneeded benefits contribute to increasing costs for all Americans.

We live in a fast-paced and transient economy, yet we have a static and unresponsive health care system. Our third-party system was created in a time when most people worked for an employer for their entire career. Today's economy is much more fluid, and our health care system must reflect these changing dynamics.

The flaws of our current system are many and the dangers of government-run health care are real. We can fundamentally reform our health care delivery system in a way that returns powerful choices to patients. If our health care system is going to meet the demands of the 21st century, we must empower patients and doctors with the ability to make important medical decisions, free from bureaucratic and employer intervention. After years of practicing medicine, I can attest that the only thing that could make our health care crisis worse is further governmental intrusion into the system. In a very real way, giving more control over medical decisions to Washington means taking control and freedom away from patients and doctors.

We should promote a system in which patients own their own health insurance coverage. Providing this individual empowerment will allow for appropriate portability, affordability, and greater access to quality care. Rather than relying upon employers or the government to make health care decisions, a positive solution will rightfully allow patients to choose what type of coverage is right for them. When patients have the power to insist upon personal health plans, the market is forced to be responsive to their specific needs, eliminating unwanted benefits and reducing costs.

Today, cost is often the most prohibitive barrier to the purchase of personal insurance. Introducing real competition to our health care system is vital if we are to lower medical costs while increasing quality. Congress must reverse the counter-productive policy that bars the purchase of health insurance across state lines. This will allow patients to purchase the plan that best meets their needs, regardless of geographic constraints, while lowering costs through the power of the open market.

In the Comprehensive HealthCARE Act, H.R. 2626, I have proposed these and further fundamental reforms to provide positive incentives to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health insurance coverage. This includes meaningful tax reform, such as tax equity, tax deductions and credits for the purchase and ownership of personal insurance with an expansive array of options, to open the door to a responsive health delivery system that would most benefit patients.

Changing the way people receive health care in a positive, meaningful way will require solutions that put patients first. Fundamental reform throughout our health care system will be required if we are going to achieve a 21st century system that is innovative, responsive, affordable, accessible, accountable, of the highest quality and, above all, patient-centered.

Dr. Price currently serves in the United States House of Representatives, representing the 6th District of Georgia. His full bio can be found here.