Reducing Health Care Costs

 1) Open the US market to imported medications. These should undergo lab testing for purity, then stamped with a label of approval. 

2) Put all medications that are not addictive and that have the same LD50 as acetaminophen over the counter. The lethal dose is about 5 times the therapeutic dose of 1000 mg. Patients have access to AI. It is superior to experienced specialists at diagnosis and at treatment. Public self-help should treat most mild conditions.

3) If a party fully investigates and remedies an adverse event, all that evidence should be exempted from litigation. The findings should be published to the internet to help others prevent the adverse event. Ruinous litigation causes defensive medicine, stifles bold innovation, and induces a cover up of the factors that caused a catastrophic failure.  

4) Prosecute accreditation agency requirements for building codes, for staffing, for mandated practices if they are not proven safe and effective. 

5) The medical malpractice lawyers take in $50 billion. The resulting cost of defensive medicine is $500 billion. 90% of medmal claims have no merit. Medicine could have that practice crushed. Their take is 10 times higher. So, it goes on. A procedure that is legally necessary but not medically necessary is called fraud. Prosecute defensive medicine procedures. 

6) End of life care consumes a quarter of the Medicare budget, around $half trillion a year. It subjects sick and elderly people to painful procedures that provide no benefit. Pushy families assuaging guilt by threatening health care providers should be crushed by getting the bill.  

If defensive medicine and end of life care were stopped, life would be better and the savings substantial. The savings would amount to $750 billion. When we say that amount, are we ready for what happens when it is saved? 7.5 million people lose their jobs, including 200,000 doctors.