Suzanne "Dr. K" K. Krzyzanowski

Healthcare

We also need to be training a lot more doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. That is another long discussion, but it is an issue that is very important for healthcare in this country. As a physician who has been training young family doctors for the past 15 years, I can say that I do not see that this has been addressed in any serious way by Congress. Learn more

Not only would a universal system be good for each person, but it would be good for the economy. Our companies are burdened by the expenses of insuring their employees. Right now, insurance for the average family of four covered by employer-sponsored insurance costs the employee 9,000 in premiums and the employer 18,000. This is terrible for businesses. Companies also limit many workers to 30 hours or less in order to avoid these expenses. If we transition to a universal system, the cost of medical care will go DOWN because we can eliminate the need for coders, billers and middle managers who contribute nothing to direct patient care. And your doctor will have more time to take care of you because they won’t have to spend half their day doing reams of paperwork, or figuring out how to game the system for you so that your colonoscopy is considered “screening” (free for you!) and not “diagnostic” (cost you an arm and a leg). Learn more

I am under no illusion that it will be easy to develop a universal healthcare system for our country. There are many different interest groups that may fight to preserve the status quo. But we are definitely entering a crisis point with our healthcare system; the vast majority of people agree on that. And a crisis provides an opportunity for change. In the meantime, there are things we need to do quickly within the current system to bring down costs. Negotiating prices for prescription drugs and eliminating some rules and regulations that haven’t improved quality of care or patient safety are just two examples. Learn more

We need a universal healthcare system that covers all our citizens. Whether we end up having a system that is a type of health savings account for each person, or a baseline of government coverage supplemented by small private plans, I know we can create a system that is better than what we have now, and where nobody needs to fear going bankrupt if their appendix bursts. And I am sure we can design a system where everyone has some skin in the game, such as a modest copay, to deter abuse of the system. Learn more