Actually, the bill now has a provision that should help. The idea is that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements will now be subject to a review by a committee of doctors and health professionals who will then make recommendations on how to adjust reimbursements to encourage better care and use of more efficient care. Systems like the Mayo Clinic, who use a team approach and results based techniques (as opposed to pay for procedure) are in favor of this. It was initially a Republican idea, and the Obama administration is pushing this along with the Blue Dog Democrats, and now it has been accepted in the House bill.

The idea is that this committees recommendations have to be accepted or rejected IN FULL by the president. Congress can also reject them, but only if they vote to reject them.

The result is that you remove Congress, and thus the lobbyists, from having a direct say over individual reimbursement issues. The result would be more rational rules that rely more on medical outcomes and cost as opposed to politics.

A single payer system is not on the table, but it’s still a government take over that doesn’t address the real issues with health care. It is a social program that will have the same problems as Canada. Call it what you will. More Government is not the answer. Medicare and social sec are 2 examples of government efficiency, yet people want our government to take over more.