Issues
Health Care
ONLY IF POLITICIANS COULD DO THE MATH...
The Abboud Health Care Platform
"Health care is a right in America, a right everyone receives but not everyone pays for. Re- examining and
fundamentally reforming the way we pay for health care is the only way to decrease costs and increase access to
care. Health care should be one thing we don' t have to worry about."
- Bob Abboud, Democratic Candidate for Congress in Illinois' 16th District
The Problem: How We Pay for Health Care
The skyrocketing costs of health care are crushing working families, small businesses and even beginning to
cripple larger companies. It is clear that America needs fundamental health care reform to reverse this trend and
expand opportunity for health care for every American. The question typical Republicans and Democrats are
asking is do we want universal health care. I am here to tell you that this question is flawed and quite silly. As
a national community we demand that every American be cared for medically in an emergency, and expect our
emergency rooms to turn no one away. This is part of the reason why 70 percent of Americans use the
emergency room as their primary caregiver. When you consider the medical standards that American's demand,
that emergency rooms can't legally turn patients away and the frequency with which everyone needs health
care, it is clear that we have universal health care – we just don't like how we pay for it.
The way we pay for health care today is exactly what is causing the surge in cost and the exclusion of more than
48 million Americans from the health insurance rolls. Health care is not an insurable item. The idea of
insurance requires that many participants pay in and only a few make an actual demand on the system. The
problem with health care insurance is that everyone pays in, but everyone makes a demand on the system.
Paying for health care this way, through an insurance method, offers no mechanism for health care costs to be
reduced.
Furthermore, when we pay for health care how much of our money actually goes to the delivery of health care
services. If you are paying insurance companies, typically about forty cents of every dollar you pay does not go
toward your health care, but right into the pockets of insurance company fat cats. In comparison, those who paid
into Medicare and are using today see 96 cents out of very dollar go toward actual health care services. It is not
to say that Medicare doesn't have its problems, but at least more of your money pays for actual services.
Under this payment system health care costs have nowhere to go but up. It is clear that we must fundamentally
reform the way we pay for health care if we expect to give working families a fighting chance at access to
quality care.
The Health Care Trust Fund: Putting Your Money to Work for You.
In an ideal world our health care programs wouldn’t be employer based, but portable programs that allowed our
coverage and our money to follow us from job to job and good health to bad. Creating the Health Care Trust
Fund will allow every participant to see three vital changes in their health coverage.
- Portability: No longer will you have to worry about your next employer's health plan or the interim
between jobs. The Health Care Trust Fund will allow you, and your family, to be covered at all times.
- Cost Reduction: The Health Care Trust fund works independently of your employers and insurance
companies, cutting out the middle man, using much more of your money on actual health services.
- Security and Savings: Your payments, along will payments of others, will be deposited into a single annuity, like a savings account, where everyone's money is combined to earn significant interest. The increased capacity of the Health Care Trust fund will reduce individual costs and ensure health coverage security for American working families.
Improving Care through Better Delivery
Insurance companies and a flawed payment system aren't the only problems contributing toward this dramatic
increase in health care costs, the method and efficiency of health care delivery is also an immediate challenge.
In addition to establishing the Health Care Trust Fund, the Abboud Health Care Platform will aggressively
pursue transforming our methods for delivering basic and preventative health care.
Currently, 70 percent of Americans receive their primary health care in an emergency room. The emergency
room is the most costly part of the hospital. In order to reduce the cost of health care, and deliver care more
effectively and efficiently, America must move toward a more clinic-community based care system. The system
would be designed to give working families access to everyday health care for colds, flu's and other non-life
threatening ailments. In addition, these community based clinics will help deliver care for manageable diseases
like diabetes. Preventative care will help keep patients healthier and prevent more expensive and life
threatening procedures that result from the mismanagement of common diseases.
Creating a reliable system of community based care will open access to quality care for all Americans, create
jobs in our fastest growing industry and dramatically reduce the cost of delivering everyday care.
