Today 17%, or $4.3 trillion, of GDP is spent on healthcare compared to the 5% of our GDP spent on healthcare back in 1960. Approximately 90% of U.S. healthcare costs are for people with chronic and mental health conditions. I support a change in priorities from our institutions to focus on our chronic disease epidemic as the number of chronic diseases continues to rise.
News networks make their money by viewership and advertisement dollars. In no other country, can pharmaceutical companies advertise during primetime news hours as we do in America. I support legislation that would make it illegal for pharmaceutical companies to advertise to the masses.
Access to healthcare is a right and not a privilege. That is why I support providing Americans with a public option. If you do not wish to take the public option, I want Americans to have access to stay with their current private health plans. I do not support Obamacare’s original penalty for those who were uninsured.
I support the public option due to my experience as a small business owner. I was 24 when I purchased my small wedding business. Due to my age, I could offered a public option, people would stay on my mom’s Cobra health insurance plan which saved me thousands. I reinvested those savings into the business and within five years, I was able to double the company’s profits. If our government were to offer a public option, people would then have more leverage for job negotiations to get higher salaries because their health benefits would not be tied to their employer. If you speak with small business owners, their biggest problem is retaining staff that do not have a spouse whose benefits they can be added to. A public option would support our small businesses if we can do it without raising taxes.
If we switch to a public option, and allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, we can see an immense decrease in healthcare costs. The two drugs that I point to where Americans are getting ripped off are Humira and Imbruvica. If you click the links, you can see Americans pay almost $15,000/month for Imbruvica. Meanwhile, Australians will spend just over $6,000/month for the same drug.
Three manufacturers produce 80% of our prescription drugs through monopolizing people’s health. We need reform to our drug manufacturing and FDA program.
Healthcare should never be politicized. Depending on the situation, there can be multiple ways to solve health problems. I come from a family of MD and DO doctors. This means a doctor’s solution can simply come down to philosophical beliefs. It is why you hear of professional athletes “seeking a second opinion” for an injury they sustain.
People should be free to make the decisions they are comfortable with based on non-politicized medical information.
In summary, I would do the following:
Provide Americans with a public option
Make pharmaceutical advertising illegal
Allow Americans to stay with their current private medical professional
I would not support a tax for those who do not obtain coverage
I would prioritize medical studies into chronic diseases
Allow for more compounding pharmacies to break-up big pharmaceutical companies