Exclusive–CL Gray, MD. Robert Campbell, MD: President Trump’s Revolutionary Plan for Fixing American Healthcare

There are at least a trillion reasons why many in Washington don’t want to fix the American healthcare system.

Approximately $800 billion are spent annually running the healthcare bureaucracy. Another $200 billion are paid each year in legalized kickbacks to middlemen in the healthcare supply chain. While none of this money goes toward actual patient care, those becoming extraordinarily wealthy under the current system will do everything they can to make sure their gravy train doesn’t end.

Money is power. Money buys power. Money moves those in power to conveniently look the other way when it becomes inconvenient to do the right thing.

Enter President Trump. Much like a business turnaround expert, Trump’s vision for healthcare reform is to fix what is broken, one piece at a time. His strategy is to implement step-wise reforms that put patients and doctors back at the center of American healthcare.

In stark contrast, Joe Biden has promised to expand the current system (and all the corruption it contains). This isn’t reform. The Biden plan only gives yet more money and power to those who profit by standing between you and your doctor.

The Biden Plan

Because America’s current healthcare system was shaped by innumerable special interest groups, it is utterly unaffordable, dysfunctional and fraught with countless barriers to efficient care. For example, a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found the average annual premium of a family health plan now stands at $21,342, up 55% since 2010; and the corresponding deductible has doubled. How can this be? Recall that President Obama repeatedly promised that the Affordable Care Act would save families $2,500 a year.

This answer: Almost all of the Washington healthcare governance bureaucracy stands between patients and their care. Every patient feels the weight of this cumbersome system when they see their physician. Doctors face a computer and type while you try to explain what bothers you. In other offices, a scribe awkwardly sits in the exam room taking notes. Nothing is private; nothing is truly confidential. Big brother is watching. All of this is done to satisfy the administrative state.

In short, Biden’s plan is to expand this system, introducing even more bureaucracy and government barriers to the system.  Whether you hear the words Medicare for All, the Public Option, or expanding Obamacare, they all mean the same thing; more bureaucrats will stand between you and your doctor. President Trump’s plan would do precisely the opposite.

The Trump Plan

There is one, central, revolutionary idea behind President Trump’s plan. That is to place the patient at the center of American healthcare. Patient-centered, personalized healthcare would give patients more control over their own healthcare dollars. When patients gain control over their own healthcare dollars, they gain control over their own medical decision-making.

The end result would mean the healthcare system would answer to the patient; the patient would no longer be at the mercy of the system. This would have several broad implications:

1) Giving patients control over their own healthcare dollar would encourage them to ask two simple questions:

– How much does this cost? And,

– Do I really need this test?

Reinstalling even this one free market force would bring down healthcare costs by driving competition and transparency.

2) Removing unnecessary middlemen and endless regulations would also drastically reduce the cost of healthcare. Lowering the cost of healthcare would lower the cost of insurance. As the cost of insurance falls, fewer Americans would be uninsured.

3) Patient-centered healthcare would compel the insurance industry to offer products that Americans really want, not products mandated by government. As Liberty Mutual says, “You only pay for what you need.”

4) Guaranteed Coverage Pools would solve the problem of pre-existing conditions. The money saved by getting rid of the middlemen could easily pay for supporting those with pre-existing conditions. Anyone who suggests otherwise is simply not being honest. President Trump has promised no legislation would be passed if it does not cover pre-existing conditions. Getting rid of the unnecessary middlemen is just one example of how he can make it happen.

It may be the President has threatened too many of those who stand between the patient and the physician. The opposition he faces to pass these reforms may be simply too fierce. Then again, Americans may decide they, in fact, do want to remain at the center of American healthcare.

But the question remains, do you want your healthcare dollar to go toward personalized healthcare for you? Or to be given to Biden’s Bureaucrats? For the American patient, the choice has never been clearer.

CL Gray, MD is the President of Physicians for Reform. Robert Campbell, MD is the President of Central PA Anesthesia. Both are members of the Job Creators Network.