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    <title>New Ideas : Health Care Debate: Health care reform via an open and respectful debate.</title>
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      <title>Do belly breathing exercices and drink more water</title>
      <link>http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/25100-5141</link>
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&lt;div&gt;Breath &amp; Water = Health (and free)
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      <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:16:29 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Keep it Simple "Public Option" and everyone Wins!!!</title>
      <link>http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/22686-5141</link>
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&lt;div&gt;I believe I have an idea that will make folks happy. &lt;br/&gt;People that do not have health care can select the public option. They are not required to have health care insurance, but if they go to a doctor's office or the emergency room or emergent care centers, or they just want to get a physical then they can enroll at point of service at the health providers for the public option for calendar year 2012 only. Whatever health care insurance the municipality, county, or state government employees has for the location is the "public option". This option is only available if the individual does not have health care coverage. The individual can request the "public option" health care coverage and pay the co-pay of the public option if it is for health maintenance or emergent health needs. If it is elective health care, then the individual pays whatever the cost is for that procedure under the health care coverage for the maunicipality, county, or state government employees. That is the public option and he/she is enrolled in the public option with his/her social security number along with any qualifying dependents. &lt;br/&gt;The healthcare provider sends the invoice for the health care service to the IRS for payment, minus the deductible.&lt;br/&gt;Individuals that do not have health care coverage, but would like health care coverage can sign up when they pay their taxes in 2011 for 2012. The cost of the "public option" is 2% of their entire income (earned, investment, interest earned, whatever the nature of income). If they elect the public option on there tax returns, then the 2% will be automatically deducted from their tax refund, if they get one, or to the amount of tax owed if they have to pay. The 2% for the public option comes out before any tax liens are taken out for back taxes, education loans, etc.&lt;br/&gt;I know if will be a difficult for the IRS, who will probably shift it to CMS for administration, to get all the deductibles and payments to providers straight. But the municipal, county, or state government should be willing to help. &lt;br/&gt;What are the advantages:&lt;br/&gt;There is no primary care provider, so using the "public option" actually provides those who elect the "public option" greater freedom.&lt;br/&gt;The remimbursement to providers is not mandated by government, the providers have agreed to these amounts with the Health Insurance Company through a free market.&lt;br/&gt;The Health Insurance Company that negotiated these costs may no longer be seen as greedy and uncaring, in fact, they may be seen as heros by users of the "public option" because it is through their business savy that the "public option" provides costs derived from a free market.&lt;br/&gt;The abortion issue goes away because the "public option" does not require the Federal government to negotiate what procedures are covered and which are not, the municipality, county, or state has already determined that when it entered into the health care coverage agreement for the municipal, county or state employees and the states insurance requirments should have already been resolved as these insurance carriers are licensed by the state. &lt;br/&gt;That is another big plus, the state keeps its power to regulate insurance and keep its rules for precentages held back for a catastrophic event or for possibles claims to the insurance carrier because the insurance carrier does not have to reimburse the "public option" user, the Federal Government does that.&lt;br/&gt;Other benefits:&lt;br/&gt;The Federal Government can get out of the business of regulation reimbursement costs for Medicaid and Medicare. Those who use Medicaid and Medicare are shifted to the "public option" and for those that cover the co-pay, then the providers bill the co-pays to the Federal Government. &lt;br/&gt;This frees the State governments from having to manage medicaid. All the municipal, county, or state governments need to do is negotiate the best possible reimbursement costs with their insurers.&lt;br/&gt;Another big bonus is that those lucky few who do not want health insurance because they "take care of their own needs" or have never been to a doctor or never plan to go to a doctor or don't believe that they will ever need a doctor, are not penalized by their right to refuse health insurance. But, should they not have insurance, and they have not signed up for the "public option" through their tax returns or did not go to a health care provider in 2012, then the providers are mandated to charge the uninsured the cost (co-pay and health plan reimbursed amount) that the municipality, county, or state government has negotiated for their employees. So everyone wins and everyone gets what they want, or what their business savy allows them to get for all of us.&lt;br/&gt;And what really good...we can provide universal health care coverage in 2012 by providing the sign up option for health insurance on the 2010 tax returns.&lt;br/&gt;And best of all...the program is funded before it starts so there should not be a deficit.&lt;br/&gt;I think this is pretty simple and pretty straight forward and I was waiting for someone to get it out there, but sense no one seemed to think of the idea but me, I thought I should share it. &lt;br/&gt;Could you get this idea to the Republicans, the Democrates, the Independents, and most importantly to the President?&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
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      <pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:55:18 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Health Care Solution</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Heath Care Solution Video&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nvzEoyiWJu4"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nvzEoyiWJu4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="opaque" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;
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      <pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:09:03 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Justify The Cost Of Health Care !!</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Everyone is talking about "How To Pay for Health Care"..Let's Start talking about "Justifying the Cost In The first Place" Greed is why Health Care Costs have Sky Rocketed..My daughter just spent 3 days in the Hospital for a routine surgery..and We just Recieved a bill for $15,000....Justify that for me Congress !!! 15,000 for Services like * Meals that are no better then Prisoners get..Doctors that You Never See..Attitudes from Nurses...Treated like "a Herd of Cattle" $22 combs, $2000 a day for a room that you share with someother Poor Sap..and on and on...And all for the Low Price of $15,000+...We need a "Cap" that can be charged on every Item and Service in the Health Care Industry..Including Medications...let's Quit trying to find a way to "Pay for the High Costs."..Instead, Get the Hospitals and Doctors in Check !! instead.
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      <pubDate>Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:12:04 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Single Payer</title>
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&lt;div&gt;The only idea to move away from the greedy Wall Street insurance companies is the Medicare/Medicaid system/Single Payer. Employers deduct Medicaid from withholdings so just make this take the place of greedy Wall Street insurance providers. One payment for health care, so simple so easy! 
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      <pubDate>Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:36:26 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Standardize Medical Coverage Among Private Insurance Companies</title>
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&lt;div&gt;The private insurance companies should work together with the government to standardize medical care coverage and administrative requirements including claim forms, deductibles, and levels of care.  This would make it easier for healthcare providers by simplifying administrative requirements and reducing administrative costs while encouraging competition.  For example, Company A, Company B, and Company C would all offer the same level of care, same deductibles, and all require the same claim form submitted by the healthcare provider while competing to provide care at the best price.    
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      <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:51:33 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Improve the quality of healthcare provision</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Enact legislation to provide incentives for the creation of integrated physician practices. This would improve health care quality, reduce costs, and create competition. Without a focus on improving quality of health care provision, the debate centers on decreasing insurance premiums which, in my opinion, is attacking a symptom and not the cause.
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      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:28:20 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Open Medicare to All Americans</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Even opponents of much of the health care reform proposals agree that Medicare works. We should open Medicare to all Americans--citizens and legal residents. Premiums for your coverage would be based on income similar to current income tax scales, and paid by payroll deduction for those currently working. Private insurance would continue to be available as it is to current Medicare participants. Employers who offer private insurance as a benefit would be required to offer the Medicare package as an option, and simply redirect the amount they contribute for private insurance to a Medicare premium instead for employees who select that option. Payments would be tied to outcomes instead of procedures to bring down costs and improve care.
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      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:01:38 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Allow more personal choice and reform medical liability torts.</title>
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&lt;div&gt;To hell with consensus. Allow more personal choice and reform medical liability torts.  I have a high deductible insurance policy and a medical IRA.  I pay cash for medical services, and I get reimbursed by the IRA up to the level of my deductible.  Whatever I don't use gets saved and invested tax free.  I find that when I pay cash, I usually get about a 20% discount off my bill.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;One change I would make is to allow individuals get the same tax deduction for buying insurance that only employers get now.  
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:33:56 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Other Ideas</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Other ideas. How about repealing government mandates about what people can insure.  Why must all insurance companies cover all procedures?  We could save billions by allowing consumers more choice in the policies they purchase.  How about making costs transparent.  Consumers should know the prices of the services they are going to receive BEFORE they are delivered.  There are a million more little tweaks that can make our current system better.  Lets start somewhere.
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:36:15 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Tax Reform</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Tax Reform = more coverage.  Take some of the savings from electronic health records, fraud reduction and tort reform and start offering tax incentives and vouchers to Americans who can’t afford coverage.  Expand tax incentives for small businesses that offer their workers health insurance (do the same for self-employed folks).  Finally eliminate capital gains taxes for investments in health care companies that are searching for ways to improve health care delivery or prevent diseases like AIDS, Cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:35:43 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Electronic Health System</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Electronic Health System = $20 billion savings potential per year. Our current paper based health system is amazingly backward.  So much paper makes fraud commonplace, allows insurance companies to pay doctors and patients slower and causing unnecessary and costly medical errors.  We need to move from our paper based system to an electronic health system.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_13645" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/13645-5141"&gt;Comments (1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_13645"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6965"&gt;Ideas Submitted To Congress From The People&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_13645"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:35:23 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Reduce Fraud</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Reduce Fraud = $200 billion savings potential per year. More than 10% of all health care costs are due directly to fraud.  Medicare fraud represents more than $40 billion per year.  James R. Frogue’s ‘Stop Paying the Crooks‘ is a road map to various solutions that could help end the fraud in health care.  Here are just a few cases of fraud that Frogue’s plans could help prevent – fraud in the news.  How can you help?  Sign the Center for Health Transformation’s “Stop Fraud First” petition here.
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:35:01 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Elimination of ‘Defensive Medicine’</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Elimination of ‘Defensive Medicine’ = $100-178 billion savings per year. Our justice system forces doctors to conduct medical treatments specifically designed to avoid lawsuits.  Most of these procedures are unnecessary and expensive.  Of course, this is easy to say, but harder to enact.  Representative Tome Price (R-GA), a licensed surgeon, has proposed the HealthCOURT Act that creates a ’safe harbor’ for doctors that agree to embrace a set of clinical best practices.  It would exempt doctors from medical malpractice claims for physicians that follow and document best-in-class standards in their treatment.
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:34:40 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Declare Health Insurance to be Interstate Commerce</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Declare Health Insurance to be Interstate Commerce = More competition = Lower prices. The health insurance business is a complete mess.  According to the AMA in 94% of metro areas around the US, a single insurer had at least 30% of the market and in 56% of the areas a single insurer had 50% or more of the market.  Each state regulates the insurance industry in their state driving up costs and reducing the number of insurance providers.  If Congress declared that health insurance was interstate commerce all insurance companies could do business in all 50 states.  The federal government could set a single set of regulations and instantly we would have more competition.  Competition will equal lower prices for consumers.
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      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:34:07 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Adopt what other countries with successful health care systems are doing</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Look at the top 10 countries that have the highest life expectancy (the US ranks 50th), the lowest infant mortality rate (the US ranks 44th), and the best-performing health-care system (the US ranks 37th).  Countries that rank in the top 10 on all those indicators include Singapore, France, and Japan.  Take what works from those countries to build our health care system.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;References:&lt;br/&gt;https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html&lt;br/&gt;https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html&lt;br/&gt;http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/index.html&lt;br/&gt;
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      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:44:24 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Reduce the cost of medical care to a level where routine things could be covered out of pocket.</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Why is medical care so expensive?&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A journal (1) article published in 2002, estimated the total health care costs in this country to be just over 1 Trillion dollars a year.  Dividing that by 300 Million people we come up with $3,333 per person, per year or $277 a month.  20% of health care costs are for ICU care, which typically make up 1% of the beds in an average hospital.  Daily ICU costs range from $2,000 - $3,000 per day in the US. (1996 figure).&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;In contrast, lets take a look at costs as outlined in a 1991 book called “Care of the Critically Ill Patient; In the Tropics and Sub-Tropics”.  Chapter 10, starts out with a cartoon titled  Intensive or expensive care? On one side is a village hospital, and on the other is a big sign declaring: “Site Reserved For New EXPENSIVE CARE UNIT”.  The book breaks down ICU beds into 3 levels:&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Level 1 Care:  $40-50 per patient, per day, with most of the cost due to infusions and drugs.&lt;br/&gt;Level 2 Care:  $100 per patient, per day.&lt;br/&gt;Level 3 Care:  $500-1,000 per patient, per day.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Compare those numbers to the US cost of $2,000 - $3,000 a day!&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Here's a breakdown of what is included in each level:&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Level 1 – basic monitoring of the pulse, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, consciousness level and urine output.  The patient can be turned, infusions are supervised, nasogastric feeding given, and intubated patients suctioned.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Level 2 – provides  mechanical ventilation and cardiac monitoring in addition to what is in level 1.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A 10 bed ICU with 5 level 1 beds and 5 level 2 beds cost $76 per patient, similar in cost to a night in an international hotel.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Level 3 – was considered inappropriate in other than teaching institutions and central referral hospitals.  It adds facilities for total parental nutrition, haemodialysis, cardiac pacing, Swan-Gane catheters and CT scanning.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;A Congressional Representative on the House floor gave the example that prior to the early 1960's, you could get 9 months of prenatal office visits and have the child delivered for $60.  Today, that same care will cost you between $3,000 and $12,000 depending on if you use a midwife or a OB/GYN.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;At one of the town hall meetings, a doctor in the audience related that he used to be able to do WBC counts (White Blood Cell) in his office for $12 a test and get results quickly.  Medicaid and Medicare came out with new regulations preventing him from doing that, so now he has to send all tests out.  This test now costs $70 and he has to wait 3 days to get the results.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Prior to the FDA getting involved with drug approval, it took 2-3 years between invention and market.  There really were no safety or quality problems and drugs were cheap.  Today it can take up to 12 years to get a drug approved and the cost of that process has skyrocketed.  A fact drug companies use to justify very high drug prices.  Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than anyone else in the world.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Medicare was predicted in 1967, by the House Ways and Means Committee to cost $12 Billion in 1990.  instead it cost $110 Billion.  Now it costs $440 Billion and we are being told that putting the government in charge of all healthcare will reduce costs.  Drugs are a major cost, but PHARMA struck a deal with the administration to give a discount on them for 10 years.  This “discount” turns out to be 2.77% of what is spend on drugs per year.  Practically unnoticeable.  &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Reducing the number of tests is brought up, yet this is due to the practice of defensive medicine as too many in this country consider any encounter with the medical profession as a chance to win the lottery.  In many other countries you can purchase just about any drug over the counter, there are few to no regulations, no lawyers looking to sue the practitioner and no insurance companies.  Care is often provided by people with lower levels of training and people are grateful that someone is trying to help them - not looking to "get rich quick". Health care in these places is inexpensive.   Yet, medical tort reform, the number one item identified by the medical community for high costs, is not even being considered for discussion.  &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Why isn't anyone asking why medical care is so expensive in this country?  The current debate is about how to pay for expensive medical care.  We should be looking for ways to reduce the cost of medical care to a level where routine things could be covered out of pocket, and insurance  used only for catastrophic situations.  This is how things used to be.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The current discussion is an exercise in misdirection.  It doesn't matter if we get the public option or not, as a government committee will decide what care will be available and what not.  The insurance companies will be forced to conform to the coverage plans this committee comes up with and we will be forced to buy it.  This bill will result in more taxes, more government control of your life and less access to health care.  Don't be fooled.  Point out that the emperor has no clothes and do so often.  Start a real discussion about why health care is so expensive.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Clearly, the problems are with the tort system and existing government regulation.  Lets make it harder to sue doctors and get rid of much of the existing government regulation that has caused health care costs to skyrocket.  Getting rid of the FDA would be a good start as well as the meddling in how health care is carried out by HHS, Medicaid and Medicare need to go too. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;(1)Luce, J. and Rubenfeld, G., “Can Health Care Costs Be Reduced by Limiting Intensive Care at the End of Life?”, Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 165, Number 6, March 2002, 750-754&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12773" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12773-5141"&gt;Comments (3)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12773"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6965"&gt;Ideas Submitted To Congress From The People&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12773"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:07:30 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Bring the federal government back under its constitutional limits</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Remove the insane (and unconstitutional) layers of the federal government's damaging intervention that already exist, and allow states (as mandated by the 10th amendment) to develop courses of action as they see fit.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Given the absence of the legitimate power of Congress, or the President, to enact measures outlined in HR3200 this should be a no-brainer. If a lack of legitimate power is not cause for concern then the lack of funding, or evidence supporting any actual reduction in overall health-care spending, should be.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12769" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12769-5141"&gt;Comments (1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12769"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6965"&gt;Ideas Submitted To Congress From The People&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?mode=tag&amp;tag=liberty"&gt;liberty&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?mode=tag&amp;tag=freedom"&gt;freedom&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?mode=tag&amp;tag=economy"&gt;economy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12769"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:30:19 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Terminate Health Insurance Companies</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Terminate health insurance companies. A single payer system like the UK, France, Spain, etc... is the only way to go. 
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      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:18:52 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Outline Administrative standards that reduces costs and improves service.</title>
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&lt;div&gt;Outline Administrative standards that reduces costs and improves service, including the ability for Administrators to determine an accurate total financial estimate at the point of service as well as enabling real time electronic transfer of funds to take place if possible (mirrors currently existing laws}.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12722" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12722-5141"&gt;Comments (1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12722"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6964"&gt;Ideas Contained Within The America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12722"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:06:00 PDT</pubDate>
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      <title>Establish a National Prevention and Wellness Strategy.</title>
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&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Establish a National Prevention and Wellness Strategy along with appropriations for its trust fund.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12721" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12721-5141"&gt;Comments (1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12721"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6964"&gt;Ideas Contained Within The America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12721"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:05:26 PDT</pubDate>
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    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Prioritize the implementation of best practices in the delivery of health care.</title>
      <link>http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12720-5141</link>
      <description>&lt;table width="100%"&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td width="100" valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div id="IdeaScale_Vote" align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:5px;font-size:2em"&gt;29&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12720-5141"&gt;Vote&amp;nbsp;On&amp;nbsp;Idea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Prioritize any eventual implementation of best practices in the delivery of health care.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12720" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12720-5141"&gt;Comments (2)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12720"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6964"&gt;Ideas Contained Within The America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12720"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:04:53 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12720-5141</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Establish a Health Benefits Advisory Committee</title>
      <link>http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12719-5141</link>
      <description>&lt;table width="100%"&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td width="100" valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div id="IdeaScale_Vote" align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:5px;font-size:2em"&gt;2&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12719-5141"&gt;Vote&amp;nbsp;On&amp;nbsp;Idea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Establish a Health Benefits Advisory Committee chaired by the Surgeon General of the United States.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12719" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12719-5141"&gt;Comments (0)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12719"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6964"&gt;Ideas Contained Within The America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12719"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:04:19 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12719-5141</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop quality measures.</title>
      <link>http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12718-5141</link>
      <description>&lt;table width="100%"&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td width="100" valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div id="IdeaScale_Vote" align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:5px;font-size:2em"&gt;2&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12718-5141"&gt;Vote&amp;nbsp;On&amp;nbsp;Idea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop quality measures for the delivery of health care services in the United States.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12718" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12718-5141"&gt;Comments (0)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12718"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6964"&gt;Ideas Contained Within The America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12718"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:03:38 PDT</pubDate>
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    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Eliminate Medicare PART D coverage gap</title>
      <link>http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12717-5141</link>
      <description>&lt;table width="100%"&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td width="100" valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div id="IdeaScale_Vote" align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="padding:5px;font-size:2em"&gt;6&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12717-5141"&gt;Vote&amp;nbsp;On&amp;nbsp;Idea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Provide for a phased-in elimination of the Medicare PART D coverage gap and requires drug manufactures to discount and/or rebate additional qualifying drugs originally excluded from the plan.
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div id="IdeaScale_IdeaFooter"&gt;&lt;span style="border-right: 1px solid silver; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding: 0 5px 0 0; color: #666;"&gt;&lt;a id="DiscussionTopic_12717" href="http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12717-5141"&gt;Comments (0)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="DiscussionTopicTag_12717"&gt;&lt;a href="/a/ideafactory.do?discussionID=6964"&gt;Ideas Contained Within The America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="margin-top:3px;" id="DiscussionTopicComment_12717"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:02:57 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.healthcaredebate.com/a/dtd/12717-5141</guid>
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