DAY IN DC FOR THE GOOD OF PATIENTS-empowering physicians to put patients first.

In the Oath of Hippocrates, physicians promise to work for the good of their patients, according to the best of their ability and judgment, and to do no harm. We support a return to this ethic in American medicine, and oppose policies that harm patients by subjugating care to the interest of the government and third parties.

Reform Issues:

• Overregulation and mandates restrict access, stifle innovation, impede transparency, block competition & raise costs.
• Fraud, waste, and shortages are rampant because special favors to middlemen.
• Employer-based and government-run insurance discourages rational insurance practices.
• Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupting the federal government, states, and doctors.
• In the era of COVID, the consequences of usurping of patient and physician autonomy and freedoms are becoming increasingly apparent and dangerous.

Proposed Solutions: to protect freedom, increase options, encourage competition, and unwind unsustainable spending.

1. End mask, vaccine, and other mandates and policies that intrude on patient autonomy. This also includes protecting Americans from World Health Organization policies that too often become mandates.
2. Protect physician and patient freedom of speech in all venues, including the Internet. The government and media must not limit legal speech and must be transparent about their sources of funding and control. (See Texas HB 20.)
3. Protect physician and patient autonomy in treatment and vaccination decisions. Early treatment for COVID saves lives and should not be improperly blocked by government or other bureaucrats. See AZ SB 1416 and MO HB 2149). Vaccine mandates are hurting vulnerable patients at low risk for COVID and must end. (See FL HB 1B, 3B, 5B, 7B).
4. Protect due process rights of physicians who too often face retaliation, simply for advocating for patients, by employers, hospital administrators, licensing boards, and others who control their ability to practice. Needed reforms include repealing HCQIA’s qualified immunity for sham peer review, reform of the National Practitioner Databank, and rights for physicians employed by private equity controlled corporations.
5. Work toward independence from China CCP medications, tech, manufacturing, goods and WHO influence.
6. End regulations blocking alternatives to ACA, employment-based, Medicare, and Medicaid plans, while allowing those who wish to keep their current government plan to do so.
7. End ACA’s ban on physician owned hospitals. Section 6001 of the Affordable Care Act of amended section 1877 of the Social Security Act to generally prohibited those who know best how to care for patients from running the facilities where care for the most seriously ill and injured often takes place.
8. Encourage transparency. Health care entities receiving taxpayer-subsidized funds from any source must disclose all prices that are accepted as payment in full for products and services furnished to individual consumers. Transparency by agencies (FDA, CDC, NIH, etc.) that control and influence health policy and treatment guidelines is also paramount. Transparency in training, so that patients know the qualifications of the clinicians caring for them, is also needed as patients are increasingly pushed to obtain care from individuals with significantly less training than physicians. Databases disclosing potential conflicts of interest must include all entities receiving or offering payments (e.g. device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, PBMs, GPOs, hospitals, insurers) not just physicians.
9. Remove legal protection for kickbacks. Remedy GPO and PBM abuse of safe harbors by encouraging Congress to repeal 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b(b)(3)(C) and amplifying HHS-OIG efforts to stop exploitation of 42 C.F.R. § 1001.952(j) and related regulations. Ending kickbacks is a crucial aspect of ending America’s reliance on China for drugs and supplies.
10. Decouple Social Security benefits from Medicare Part A. Citizens should be permitted to disenroll from Medicare Part A without forgoing Social Security payments. This would immediately decrease government spending and open the potential for a true insurance market for the over-65 population.
11. Repeal Medicaid rules that decrease Medicaid patients’ access to independent physicians. ACA requires physicians ordering and prescribing for Medicaid patients to be enrolled in Medicaid. This creates barriers for Medicaid patients who seek care from independent physicians but wish to use Medicaid benefits for prescriptions, diagnostics, and hospital fees. This is a particular problem for Medicaid patients seeking treatment for opioid addiction.
12. Explicitly define direct patient care (DPC) agreements as medical care (instead of insurance) so patients can use their HSAs, HRAs and FSAs for DPC.
13. Expand Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).  Examples of needed reform include repealing the requirement that an individual making a tax-deductible contribution to an HSA be covered by a high deductible health care plan; increasing the maximum HSA contribution level; allowing Medicare eligible individuals to contribute to an HSA. HSA reform will help end tax discrimination. Individual’s payments for medical care should not be taxed differently than payments made by employers.
14. End Restrictions on Health Sharing Ministries. Open the door for secular charitable sharing plans. Health Care Sharing Plans engage in voluntary sharing and are not a contractual transfer of risk.
15. Encourage indemnity insurance and competition instead of managed care HMO plans. No limited networks of physicians and facilities.
16. Address shortcomings of the No Surprises Act, that unfairly increase insurance company control over the ability of patients’ to access care from the physicians of their choice on mutually agreeable terms and that increase red tape for physicians.
17. Increase options for addressing pre-existing conditions. Invigoration of competition, by implementing the above changes, would bring a variety of products for patients with pre-existing conditions, including reinsurance, and inexpensive guaranteed issue and renewability protections, and most importantly, lower overall cost of care.

Conclusion: Congress has passed law after law that disrupts the patient-physician relationship, corrupts medical decision making, and increases costs. During the COVID era, overregulation and regulatory capture is a greater threat to our nation than ever.   Harmful laws and policies cannot be fixed by adding new regulatory burdens or further usurping patient and physician autonomy. True reform starts with repealing laws and correcting errors, restoring the freedom, under constitutionally limited government, that made America great.

The Ten Commandments of Healthcare

“Socialism is great until you run out of someone elses money.” ~Margaret Thatcher

Remember: Doctors for America was Doctors for Obama(partisan organization)

Read more: “Both Parties are Responsible for Healthcare Disaster” by Dr. Wax, published in Medical Economics, June 27, 2017 http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/both-political-parties-are-responsible-healthcare-disaster

Principles for individual healthcare freedom

IP4PI Physicians support the following resolutions for the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the US:

1.  The full repeal, nullification or reconciliation of ACA/Obamacare as it was:

A. ACA passed by a partisan Congress (one party) by reconciliation. B. Changed by the executive branch 43 times without appropriate congressional action. C. Changed by SCOTUS to be a tax bill. D. Tax bills must originate in the House and ACA originated in the Senate. E. ACA has changed healthcare from a professional physician-patient interaction into merely an act of government HHS/CMS unelected bureaucratic compliance. F. ACA lead to an uncontrolled rise in costs for all citizens through increased taxes, insurance costs, hospital costs, physician costs, use of narrow networks and severely limited ACA approved options. G. IRS and tax penalties for any American citizens violate the US Constitution. H. Mutually accepted individual customer-vendor purchases are the ideal way to allow personal choice, encourage excellence and establish price competition for best citizen consumer value.

Obamacare cost us trillions to save us millions.

Think about the math; Obamacare cost trillions to save us millions . It has taken over our the healthcare system, insurance system, funneling money to the hospitals and special interests, and stolen everybody’s right to choose to buy or not buy and insurance product. It is the biggest tax increase, biggest taxpayer funded entitlement and biggest theft of out rights in the history of our country. Obamacare Medicaid is not actual care, but a phony entitlement to enslave a population to vote for Washington cartel into perpetuity. I’m no fan of either party and their centralized power and money. We must repeal ACA and change DC now!

Best wishes for good health,

Craig M. Wax, DO

Family Physician

National Physicians Council on Healthcare Policy member

Twitter @IP4PI  @drcraigwax

Saving the Principle Upon Which the Country Was Founded – Liberty

I’m not really trying to save the country…trying to save the principle upon which the country was founded…Liberty

The Federal Government should be removed from every aspect of interference it has unconstitutionally grabbed in the last 100 years: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Income Tax, Federal Reserve, education funding , litany of Federal Agencies etc. etc., etc.,

Never was there a country on Earth (and there will never be one) with massive central government programs that are not either bankrupt and/or corrupted morally and politically, We indeed see that in our face after 100 years of creeping socialism….

Complete decentralization means living within your means locally …health care, education….everything!

Short of this the country will break up soon.

Jack Iannantuono, CFP®, ChFC®, MSFS, AIF® | Indicon, Inc.
Chief Executive Officer

We Need to Become Joyous Warriors

Richard Armstrong, MD writes in response to Dr. Kris Held’s guest post:

Kris, Yes, but I must also add something which we discussed in Colorado to what I believe is simply a factual observation. The circumstances we are currently living have been very long in the making. Those who favor “government run and planned” medical care are running up against a very harsh reality.the economics of their plans don’t work.there is a fundamental math issue which they tend to gloss over and ignore, but just witness the Vermont attempts. Even Governor Shumlin had to finally admit, although he waited for his re-election, that in the final analysis they couldn’t do it.duh.it is no surprise to us.

National Physicians Solution Forum | Let My Doctor Practice

Patients and doctors alike are being crushed by the current health care system, where government and insurers, instead of patients and medical professionals, make health care decisions. Check out the new letmydoctorpractice.org, national physicians town hall. This is not a membership organization. This is a solutions forum, to which all doctors and their organizations are invited. View all content free, add your voice.

• 45+ Speakers
• 30+ Hours of Solutions/Alternatives Content
• 30+ Organizations Participated
• “Key Ideas, Resources and Solutions” with links

Best to all,
Mike Strickland

A Physicians’ Template for HealthCare Reform: An Eleven Point Plan

via AmericanDoctors4Truth

Revised Edition, September 1, 2015

There are those who say that ObamaCare is now the law of the land and citizens should accept it and proceed with compliance. However, the overt bribery with cloistered deliberations and the failure of Congress to read the bill before passage is an affront to every American citizen regardless of political persuasion. As we now begin to understand this takeover of one sixth of the private sector economy, we see a fundamental transformation of the relationship between the individual and the federal government. The profession of medicine has been politically commandeered to accomplish centralized power in bureaucrats who now have increasing potential to intercede in some of life’s most critical and intimate affairs. This has the potential to erode the personal dignity and worth of every individual and strip individuals of personal freedom in healthcare choices. Our healthcare system needed reform, not the further distortions to the system in the ACA.

These ideological considerations aside, many promises of ObamaCare have been shown to be false. Health insurance costs have already risen and individuals have lost their insurance, hospital access, and physicians with whom they were happy. Individuals now have an insurance card, but with the high deductibles and narrow networks they are unable to access care. Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA are existing examples of government medicine. Medicaid pays less than the cost of delivery of care for many services, and the VA scheduling delay scandal actually cost lives. The bureaucratic nightmare of compliance with Medicare mandates, not to mention the approaching ACA mandates, has prompted many physicians to restrict the number of these patients or opt out of participation completely.

Thirty-six states wisely rejected ObamaCare by not setting up state run exchanges. Of the fourteen that did, at least seven are now insolvent after over a billion dollars of federal tax dollars were spent to help set them up. ObamaCare has never been implemented. Rather, it has been changed by administrative or executive fiat at least thirty-five times. After the 2014 elections, there continues to be a window of opportunity for alternative solutions to fix our American healthcare system without destroying arguably the finest medical and surgical care in the world. Across the country physicians are joining forces to craft viable alternatives that fulfill the false promises of ObamaCare. Although the AMA has name recognition, it represents only about 12% of practicing physicians. In fact, the AMA supported ObamaCare because it has a monopoly on the coding books necessary for business with government insurers, an estimate $80 million a year revenue for them. Currently Docs4PatientCareFoundation, The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, AmericanDoctors4Truth, The Physician’s Council for Healthcare Policy, and The National Coalition of Physicians for Healthcare Freedom, and United Physicians and Surgeons of America are leading activists in these endeavors. Most of the reform ideas share a common philosophy. Our system should be patient centered, physician guided, and free market driven leading to healthy competition, transparency, and free patient choice. Perhaps those in Congress and the presidential candidates who truly care about enduring reform will consider listening to the experts in healthcare, the boots-on-the-ground practicing physicians who take care of you and your family. The eleven points for reform are as follows:

1. Get employers out of the health insurance business. Shift insurance purchase for the employee to defined contributions for healthcare purchases or to increased wages to place individuals in the driver’s seat selecting insurance options that fit their needs. Massive administrative costs for business would be saved and disruptions to existing physician relationships would be stopped. Insurance would be non-job specific, stable, and portable. The insurance industry would be forced to respond with a robust offering of individual policies that would form the risk pools. They would compete by virtue of their product, not contracts with third parties, i.e. employers or the federal government.
2. Purchase of health insurance, health savings accounts, or cash payment for care should be with pre-tax dollars regardless of who makes the purchase.
3. Once a robust individual market is established, liberate Medicare aged individuals by allowing them to opt out of Medicare without penalty. A defined contribution, like their social security check, would allow them to purchase insurance of their choosing like the rest of the population.  Retain Medicaid for the truly indigent or incapacitated of all ages.
4. Medicaid would emerge as the only federal government health insurance program, except for the Military and the VA System. (Their reform is for a different discussion.) It could be also used as a stop-gap insurance for those between jobs who could not afford continuation of their insurance, as well as a “rider” for pre-existing disease added to conventional insurance for a specified time. States should receive block grants without mandates to decrease the perverse incentives to increase enrollment. This also promotes innovative ways to ensure access to quality care in cost effective ways.
5. Return to indemnity insurance where there is shared risk for unanticipated medical or surgical expenses related to injury or illness. The notion that insurance is pre-paid routine healthcare cannot be fiscally sustained. Health Savings Accounts with a catastrophic insurance policy paid for with pre-tax dollars would transition to paying health care dollars, not insurance dollars. Many current insurance payments exceed the cost of routine care and a catastrophic policy. Patient controlled HSAs promote good stewardship of healthcare dollars.
6. Encourage states to eliminate insurance coverage mandates, like acupuncture and message, to allow a cost effective catastrophic policy and HSA’s. Pre-existing could be covered with time-limited riders.
7. Allow purchase and portability across state lines. States are the places for innovative healthcare solutions, not one size fits all central planning. Mistakes are more readily remedied as well.
8. Total transparency across all health care entities is essential. No more third party contracts. There could be a state sponsored portal where hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, etc could post their individual fee schedules regardless of the insurance the individual carries. The insurance contract then becomes one between the patient and the insurance company. Insurance companies then could list what they will pay, not dictate what the physician can charge. This allows patients free access to whatever provider they chose. Cost shifting and horrendous administrative burdens would be eliminated. Hospitals would no longer have inflated “charge master” fees. Prices would fall as competitive markets emerge. We don’t walk into a grocery store and get charged different prices depending on what credit card we use and what deal that credit card has with the grocer.
9. Fees and costs of all entities, like pharmaceuticals, surgery, devices, physician services, should reflect the cost of resources used and services rendered, not an inflated price upon which third party contracts base their “discounts” for individuals in their “network” nor the Medicare arbitrary price controls. This allows patients and physicians to make informed decisions regarding health care expenditures and choices, and helps to ensure adequate access to care.
10. Encourage torte reform to save the estimated 30% cost of litigation avoidance for pain and suffering. Lost wages and disability compensation would still be recoverable.
11. Allow charitable care delivered by the physician to be a tax deductible item with a yearly limit.

Jane Lindell Hughes, MD, FACS

Edited and Approved By:
AmericanDoctors4Truth

Co-Founders:
Kristen Story Held, MD
Jane Lindell Hughes, MD, FACS

Patient’s bill of rights

by Carlisle Holland DO

1. I have the right to decide what happens to my body

2. I have the right to decide who I trust for my medical advice and treatment.

3. I have the right to decide what medications I take

4. I have the right to decide what medical treatments are done for my condition

5. I have a right to privacy of my medical information with my physician.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE, not by words or emails!

Dr. Steven Horvitz – writes in

I am getting tired of all the bitching and moaning, yet everyone still continues to bend over and get sodomized day in and day out by third parties, government regulations and even worse our own physician societies.

Words, words and more words and yet it only gets worse.

Our patients think we are crying wolf because what actions have we taken to prove we mean what we say?

If you do not act, just forget about it and be assimilated.

Possible actions:

1- Opt out of all insurers. Don’t play their game.

2- Resign from the physician societies that have been screwing you.

3- Get a position in the societies and change them.

4- Start our own physician organizations and bring other docs fed up with the system over to ours. Strength in numbers only if walking the walk!!

5- Retire. I hear WalMart is hiring greeters again.

6- Run for political office and then DO NOT get altered by the system. Politicians think they are the system. Unless we fight back they will continue to think that way.

7- Treat every one of your patients like they were your family and get their support for any and all of the above that you have changed.

Other than that keep just sending emails and keep digging your own grave.

Nobody likes complainers. Our patients will not follow complainers, but they will follow and support leaders.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE, not by words or emails!

Steven Horvitz DO