HealthCare System Principles

1. Universal coverage, similar to basic Medicare, but for everyone. Premiums are shared by the entire population.
2. Significant individual co-pay for basic services and testing, up to a means-tested threshold (income bracket). No Co-pay for preventive health measures.
3. Full Catastrophic coverage, above threshold.
4. No coverage for "futile care", with a process to determine when care is futile, based on medical judgment (all physicians agree).
5. No "fee-for-service"; reimbursement is based on "management fee" related to complexity of illness, not how much is done.
6. Tort reform to limit "pain & suffering awards", coupled with vigorous efforts to remove incompetent physicians from practice.
7. Publish data and pay physicians, not just hospitals, based on Quality measures
8. Change the perception of Healthcare: from profit-making medical-industrial complex to Public Service sector of economy.