Health care costs continue to grow at average rates of about 15% per year.
These growth rates are not affordable or sustainable in the budgets of most
Minnesotans. Draz believes that personal choice and personal responsibility
have been removed from our system, creating a government-driven
momentum for health care price increases.
There are 4 areas in which we can work to decrease health care costs for all
Minnesotans:
Reduce government mandates. Minnesota government mandates on insurance
companies and health care providers is costing Minnesotans in both the prices
they pay for health care and the choices that they have in receiving it. We
must eliminate many of these mandates in order to restore market forces,
which will bring pricing integrity back to the system and will lower health
care costs.
Reform tort liability for health care providers. Doctors are people. They are
not perfect. Although we have the very best health care system in the world,
and health care providers work very hard to become even better, some
mistakes are still made. The ability for people to become rich off of the
health care system by suing doctors must stop. These costs are passed right
on to consumers contributing to high health care costs.
Health Savings Accounts. Most people and many businesses are not aware of
the availability of health savings accounts as a tool for reducing the cost of
their health care. We need to step up the education effort by introducing these
to people. Health savings accounts help reduce health care expense by
bringing personal responsibility into the equation.
Elderly care and families. Many families would like to care for their elderly
parents, but most cannot afford to. Under the contemporary practice of
placing the elderly into assisted living facilities or nursing homes, care of the
elderly is very expensive for families. We need to encourage families to care
for their elderly parents by adjusting policies to provide incentives to do so.
These incentives may include, but would not be limited to providing tax
incentives and reforming rules for the distribution of government payments
dedicated to elder care so that families can be paid for the care they provide to
their elderly parents.
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