TOO MANY SCARECROWS IN CONGRESS

In the Wizard of Oz movie the Scarecrow says, "IF ONLY I HAD A BRAIN." We just have far too many Scarecrows in congress. If we had a few, equipped with a brain, perhaps the health care problems could easily be fixed. Currently the back room costs for private insurers is 20%. In most industrialized nations that cost is 5%. They reduced the expense by insisting no one be denied coverage, all claims be paid promptly and competition is encouraged. A few pages of legislation could easily save 15% on insurance premiums. Probably more if companies could compete across state lines.

If a cap was placed on malpractice claims further savings could be realized by eliminating the need for defensive medicine and the high cost to Doctors of insurance. A standardized form for medical claims would reduce the amount of paperwork in the Doctors office, also reducing the staff requirements there. Perhaps, if this happened the misrepresentations by politicians would cease. We might discover the true number of people that need taxpayer assistance to obtain medical care, that they do not now receive.

The Veterans Administration has one of the best, if not the best, medical information systems. What would it cost to put that program on disc and supply it to every hospital and doctor in the country? It is only a dream that waste and corruption in Medicare will be made to vanish. If you could do that, we could also put an end to bank robbery. The premise that a government run program would work more efficiently or at lower administrative cost is simply a pipe dream.

AH!, IF CONGRESS ONLY HAD A BRAIN