Question: What’s your vision for health care reform in the US?
Rubin: My vision should be more community health centers, many, many more. More HMOs, really control over pharmaceuticals and the price of pharmaceuticals. You know, you could buy, you’re able to buy medicine at 30%, 40% or 50 % by going to Canada for the same pills and then they outlawed it, they outlawed it and then Congress passed a law and was vetoed by the President to require generics, just requiring generic medication for reimbursement purposes not outlawing for anything except for reimbursement could save the American people and government a huge fortune. And I’m very pessimistic about the time it’s going to take to restructure it and the vested interests and the lobbyists, and it’s so ripe with doing things the wrong way and for the wrong reasons. I mean, we built, we built the first medical PPO, you know, I think the first big national-wide PPO in the country and the PPO contracts with doctors and hospitals and labs and surgery centers and negotiates discounts with them and then so was that as a service to health and welfare funds and insurance companies. The first 10 years we made basically worked for self-insured union funds and some employee funds, and then after 10 years, we start getting the big insurance companies.
Question: What are the challenges to universal health care in the US?
Rubin: Everybody hates the healthcare system but they like their own doctor and they can’t put the connection between their own doctors as a [cog] in the healthcare system. But the doctor is influenced by the pharmaceuticals. One of the biggest lobbyists after defense in America is the drug and the medical lobby in America and they want to profit, but in getting profit, they are pushing for a lot of things that are not medically necessary.
Discuss
Fred Sullivan on September 14, 2009, 1:54 AM
I agree we need to shift care to clinics if possible and potentially link each patient to a health care provider one on one long term. A doctor or nurse with a personal and advocate and advisory type relationship.
The health insurance pharma companies are getting between doctors, nurses and their patients. I do think a single payer or public option is important in bringing competition and safety to healthcare. How does a deadman complain about a problem with his health insurance company find a new one after it has failed in many cases.
Canadian drugs are cheaper because they can by on a nationwide scale they would be cheaper here also if had a national health insurance also.
As a business owner I would rather pay an increased payroll tax instead of administer and pay for a company health insurance plan. You get very little credit for paying increased premiums for your employee’s especially when co-pays and lower reimbursements make their insurance seem less of a benefit. It leaves an uneven playing field. Your competitors if international do not have a inefficient private insurers who have to profit to pay. The individual working for you really does not have a choice. If you are a small company and someone is sick means your health insurance may become unaffordable and you have to switch companies and then your employee has a pre-existing condition will then leave them uninsured. You must cover all your fulltime employee’s or none so soon you are left with a choice to fire, help himself insure, find a loop hole or a cheaper high deductible plan for all, all bad choices.
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