Meaningful Health Care Reform

To Congress,

Any meaningful Health Care reform which seeks to lower health care costs must include tort reform. Caps must be placed on non economic (pain and suffering) damages. Many unnecessary tests are performed because doctors subscribe to the CYA principle. Frivolous lawsuits could be reduced by making the plaintiff pay the legal costs of doctors in cases in which doctors are not found to be at fault. These issues will probably not be addressed because of the large numbers of attorneys in Congress.

Preventative medicine would also reduce health care costs. It is less expensive to prevent a problem than it is to cure it. In the short and medium term, preventative medicine will reduce costs. In the long term, people will live longer, which is a good thing, but health care will be needed for a longer period of time. I fear age discrimination will result and fewer and fewer medical treatments will be made available to older Americans.

The government may feel that health care funds would be better spent on what it, the government, feels are more productive parts of society. The government must avoid placing more value on one human life than another one. This is impossible to determine. There are too many unknowns. A younger person can become a Charles Manson while an older person may develop a cure for cancer. The government can not play God.

Signed,
The Electorate