What are 6 specific ways to control the rising cost of health care?

  Stop allowing drug companies to advertise directly to the consumer. The drugs advertised are the new ones - the ones without generic alternatives. The patient asks the doctor for the latest and greatest drug because they saw it on television. A drug with a generic alternative may work just as well, but if the patient asks for the new advertised drug and the doctor believes it works, that's what they get - and it's more expensive.

Restrain the insurance companies. Have you ever visited one? I have. The ones I've been to include things like a three story water fountain in the foyer, a 20 acre property with walking paths and landscaped ponds, an exercise room with a swimming pool for the employees, and a cafeteria that rivals most 4 star restaurants. Oh, and in the summer, everyone goes home at noon on Friday. Nice bennies. Glad you can enjoy yourselves on my dollar.

Get a handle on fraud, and prosecute (and punish) heavily - monetarily - to prevent it. That's fraud on the part of the "patients" who falsely claim injuries as well as healthcare providers and insurance companies who are complicit.

Just cut the prices. Too many people/companies/hospitals are making too much money off of the suffering of others. Sometimes it's intentional, and sometimes there is a lot of "fat" that could be trimmed within organizations. Too much administration, not enough health care.

Stop focusing on the individuals. Stop insisting that everyone should be trying to live forever. Stop cramming "good health" down everyone's throats. Some people say that if everyone were healthy, health costs would go down. But that's an impossible goal, and just distracts from the other, much larger issues. I'm not saying that we should ignore serious medical conditions. I just think that we need to stop overdiagnosing ourselves - not every problem in our lives should be blamed on a "disease." Some conditions we are suffering from may have been prevented by being LESS "health conscious." Allergies, for example, have risen drastically since World War II - as we became germophobic and overuseres of antibiotics. It is suggested that people who grow up on farms or with pets are less likely to develop allergies or asthma because they are exposed to harmful bacteria when they are very young, and their immune systems learn what they're supposed to be fighting. It's a verifiable fact that there are far fewer allergies in third world countries, where living conditions are not as clean as they are here. There are also suggestions that certain parasites (yes, worms) are actually beneficial - they help to balance our immune systems. Not making it up - read the May 2006 National Geographic article, and the Wikipedia link below.

Create a national health plan, cutting out as many middle-men as possible. Set standard prices for common services. Provide basic coverage for everyone, and allow those with more money to purchase more comprehensive plans. Stop allowing people to be excluded from health care because they don't earn enough money.

The United States spends almost twice as much on health care as any other industrialized nation, but we aren't any healthier. Obviously what we're doing now doesn't work. Radical changes are required, but we've become such a bureaucracy that we aren't capable of making those kinds of changes anymore.

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