Someone on the Kilgore team knows their stuff when it comes to healthcare. I was pleasantly surprised at the substantive nature of the proposals in the latest release from the Kilgore campaign. The plan overdoes it with new tax “credits”, which are nothing more than back-door expenditures, but there’s no way to fix Virginia’s health care system on the cheap. All things considered, there are some meaty ideas that deserve consideration. This may be the Kilgore team’s best effort yet. The highlights:
- Information Technology. On the grounds that IT can boost productivity of a health care system plagued by paperwork and redundancy, Kilgore would encourage physicians, public-private partnerships and the state to invest in IT projects and integrated information systems. Good idea. IT can save billions and improve patient safety.
- Long-Term Care. Kilgore would allow individuals purchasing long-term care insurance for themselves or their parents to receive a tax credit. Sounds good, but could be a budget buster. It’ll drain the treasury, but won’t save the state any money: Poor people won’t buy the insurance — they’ll just go on Medicaid.
- Rural Primary Care. Kilgore wants to put a rural health center in every distressed community in Virginia. Good idea. Money spent preventing illness in a primary care setting can save money spent on curing an illness in a hospital.
- Health Savings Accounts. Kilgore wants to “work closely with the federal government” to expand access to health savings accounts. OK. That’s something that insurance companies should be doing, but I can’t see any harm coming of it.
It’s a good start. If only someone would (1) tackle mandated insurance benefits which makes the price of medical insurance unaffordable for small business, and (2) eliminate the Certificate of Public Need process, which discourages competition between hospitals and specialty health care facilities.