Patients & Doctors Know Health Care Best

America has without question the highest quality healthcare in the world.  Thousands if not millions of citizens in countries all over the world travel here to benefit from an innovative, life-saving surgery, medical technique or new drug.  Healthcare now consumes almost 22% of our Gross Domestic Product and is the largest and fastest-growing component of state and federal government budgets.  We must get healthcare costs under control as well as continue to provide the healthcare safety net for the indigent and uninsured.  I am completely unconvinced that the solution to this problem is nationalization, single payer, or a new massive federal bureaucracy to manage or insure our nation’s healthcare delivery system.  The federal government’s track record in this arena is not good…Medicare, the Veterans Administration Healthcare System, and healthcare delivery in our nation’s prisons, mental hospitals and nursing homes.  As a percentage of cost spent on the American healthcare dollar, Medicare costs are growing the fastest, while Medicaid costs are threatening to bankrupt numerous state governments.  We should be focusing on technology, cost management, the quality of healthcare and incentives for medical insurance companies to become more competitive, not another government takeover of a market.  Washington must realize that doctors, nurses and patients are better suited to address their medical needs than bureaucrats.

As a healthcare executive, I have worked with the Georgia Health Leadership Council, and worked with dozens of Georgia’s leading hospital doctors and medical industry leaders.  I also co-sponsored SB 3 and SB 75 which the Atlanta Journal Constitution has touted as the most sweeping tort reform in the nation.  Click on the picture to the right to see a flier the Georgia Medical Association sent out on Senator Stephens.

The Bill Stephens Ten Point Plan for Common Sense in Health Care

House and Senate versions of Health Care Reform create massive new bureaucracies, increase spending by $1.3 trillion, and still leave more than 30 million Americans uninsured.  Funding sources vary from a tax on health insurance benefits, to a tax on ‘wealthy’ Americans (incomes in excess of $250,000 per household per year) to a hospital per bed ‘surtax.’ All proposed programs require huge budget cuts to Medicare, which is the largest use of health care dollars and only growing with most Baby Boomers coming into retirement. While all Republicans and most Democrats agree that President Obama’s plan is not the answer, most are not offering ideas.

The Obama Administration wants to use its near record majorities in Congress to ‘reset’ the relationship of the federal government and U.S. taxpayers.  Massive federal spending, coupled with the take-over or often nonsensical regulation of health care and many of America’s largest competitive industries may permanently cripple the American economy as we know it.

This U.S. Congress needs adult supervision, and I want to turn the Congress nonsense into good, old-fashioned common sense.  I am the only candidate in this race who has passed meaningful health care reform that has helped keep Georgia’s health care costs low, and today I have formed a Ten Point Plan that promotes the basic American principles: free choice, competitive markets, and readily available information.

In the Georgia State Senate, I passed legislation simplifying the process for small businesses to offer health coverage to their employees. As Majority Leader, I passed comprehensive lawsuit abuse reform after a three year battle. This law limited frivolous lawsuits and reduced health care costs over time. It increased access to health care for women and improved emergency room care and helped consumers by preventing unfair class action lawsuits that increase prices and enrich a handful of lawyers.

My Ten Point Plan for Common Sense in Health Care would make quality health care coverage affordable and accessible for every American.  It would give Americans the freedom to make their own choices, rather than suffer the whims of Washington bureaucrats.  Let’s not turn yet another competitive market into a government-run program. It’s just good common sense.

1. We must first repair health care delivery already managed by the federal government beginning with renovating the tattered VA health care system for our nation’s Veterans.
2. Guarantee every American that medical decisions will be decided by the individual and their doctor, not by Washington.
3. Implement comprehensive abusive lawsuit reform that will reduce the costs of health care by alleviating the incentives to frivolously sue doctors.
4. Make private healthcare more competitive so that pre-existing conditions do not disqualify people from health care coverage.
5. Extend tax savings to those who do not have employer-provided insurance and purchase health insurance on their own.
6. Create a new small business tax credit to small companies offering their employees new health insurance and allow small businesses to band together to offer their employees health insurance at lower costs.
7. Encourage the 10 million uninsured Americans who are eligible, but not enrolled in, an employer-sponsored plan get private health care coverage.
8. Promote prevention and wellness by allowing employers and insurers to financially reward individuals who maintain a healthy lifestyle.
9. Increase patients’ access to health care information so they can select a health care plan that best suits an individual’s needs.
10. 10. Improve our current system of private health savings accounts, which reduce the need for dependence on government health assistance.