By Saleem Rana
Interview by Allen Cardoza
Dr. Craig F. Beyer, author of “Heaven or Health: A Doctor’s Plan to Save our Health & Health Care System,” appeared as a guest on the Answers For The Family radio show, a weekly talk show that interviews contemporary thinkers and explores a wide range of issues related to family wellness.
Is The Current Health Care System…A Health Risk?
During the interview, Dr. Beyer pointed out that our current health care system is not taking care of our health.
He illustrated his point, with the following example:
If someone needs cataract surgery, it can be done with a scalpel or a laser. Although the laser technology is far more precise, it costs about $500 more. Unfortunately, under the current health system, the patient will not get the better treatment. Quite simply, Medicare will not pay for the quality and precision of the advanced technology.
Eventually, too, the most sophisticated medical technology, which costs billions to invent, will have to be shelved.
Escalating Costs
Besides not taking care of our health, the current system also costs much more than morally justifiable.
Medicare and Medicaid not only create higher taxes, but also force hospitals to mark up their prices because insurance will only pay a percentage of costs.
“If a service is worth a dollar,” said Dr. Beyer, “the hospital has to charge ten dollars just to be able to earn their dollar after the insurance company pays out.”
He recalled a time a friend of his paid $25,000 for a one night hospital stay. When Dr Beyer calculated the actual medical costs, he concluded that it should not have been more than $3,000.
Obamacare Causes More Problems Than It Solves
Obamacare was created to counteract high medical costs. Although well-intentioned, it did not provide a meaningful alternative. Numerous regulations diminish the overall quality of health care.
Under the current billing system, there is not much difference between the fees paid to an Optometrist who went to a community college and an Ophthalmologist who studied at Harvard. Obamacare ignores the quality of care provided by different medical professionals.
The Optometrist and the Ophthalmologists, for instance, have entirely different educational backgrounds. In fact, they have very little in common. For one thing, the Ophthalmologist studied hundreds of hours more to acquire superior medical knowledge. For another, this education cost hundreds of thousands of dollars extra to acquire.
Eventually, Obamacare will drive private doctors out of business and diminish the overall quality of medical treatment.
An Alternative Health Care Model
Since the third-party-payer health system appears highly dysfunctional, Dr. Beyer suggested another alternative:
First, Americans should become more health conscious and learn to eat better, exercise more, and adopt better health habits.
Second, the government safety net should be reserved only for the relative few who are truly sick, disabled or mentally incapable of independent living.
Third, tax-exempt personal health savings accounts can fund medical care for the average working person, while, at the same time, offering incentives to avoid excessive use of medical services.
This alternative health model cuts out third parties because it leaves fees up to patients and their physicians based on a free market system. Factor in high-deductible, catastrophic insurance and people will have all the protection they need. Using this plan, health care costs will plummet while health care standards will rise.
Final Thoughts
Dr. Craig F. Beyer may have just found a way for all of us to be healthy and well instead of frustrated by limited medical treatment options that cost too much and provide too little.
