REAL Health Care Reform

On Friday, Politico released a draft of the GOP proposals to take down ObamaCare. They include eliminating the individual mandate, income-based premium subsidies, and all of the law’s taxes. In addition, Medicare spending would be lowered and states would be given money for high risk pools aimed at covering pre-existing conditions. All of the details regarding the plan’s cost will be influenced by CBO findings and the effect on the federal deficit. Yet if Republicans are serious about creating a so-called “patient centered” plan, it might be extremely useful to heed the words of Florida attorney and former Florida hospital president, Steven I. Weissman. “The biggest problem in health care is that there is no pricing at all,” Weissman explains. “It is not a coincidence that the only product or service permitted to be sold in the U.S. without legitimate pricing is the one which has imposed tremendous financial hardship.”

Last week, Fox News' Tucker Carlson interviewed Weissman to find out why. The first question he asked and the answer he received was enlightening — and infuriating. “Is there a connection between the amount of money spent on lobbying on health care, and the dysfunction in the health care system?” Carlson asked.

“Absolutely,” Weissman answered. “You can call me a cynic, but the health care industry spends more on lobbying than the oil and gas industries, defense industries and aerospace industries combined.”

Weissman is on the money, so to speak. According to OpenSecrets.org, the total amount of money spent on lobbying for defense, aerospace, and oil and gas is $317 million.

Health care lobbying? A whopping $509.5 million.

As a result, Weissman insists the politicians in Washington, DC, are working to solve the health care problem on the wrong end of the equation. “Repeal ObamaCare, replace ObamaCare, amend ObamaCare and all of the plans are based on the false ideas that we have an insurance problem in the United States, when what we really have … is a health care billing problem, a medical price problem,” he insists.

Weissman highlights an absurdity to which millions of Americans have resigned themselves. “You ask the price of any service, you can’t get a straight answer,” the doctor explains. “The only answer you’ll ever get is ‘what insurance do you have?’”

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