But we also need to ensure that those without prior group coverage and with preexisting conditions, who have the most difficulty in the individual market, have access to the high-quality coverage they need. As with other problems our nation has faced, states have taken the lead in experimenting with ways to cover the “uninsurables” and give us a window into what works and what doesn’t work. I will consult with the governors to solicit their ideas about a best practice model that states can follow — a Guaranteed Access Plan or GAP — and work with Congress, the governors, and industry to make sure that it is funded adequately and has the right incentives to reduce costs such as disease management, individual case management, and health and wellness programs. The details of a Guaranteed Access Plan would be worked out with the collaboration and consent of the states that wish to participate.
This cooperation among states in the purchase of insurance would also be a crucial step in ridding the market of both needless and costly regulations, and the dominance in the market of only a few insurance companies. Right now, there is a different health-insurance market for every state. Each one has its own rules and restrictions, and often guarantees inadequate competition among insurance companies. Often these circumstances prevent the best companies, with the best plans and lowest prices, from making their product available to any American who wants it. We need to break down these barriers to competition, innovation and excellence, with the goal of establishing a national market to make the best practices and lowest prices available to every person in every state.
Families also place a high value on quickly getting simple care, and have shown a willingness to pay cash to get it. If walk-in clinics in retail outlets are the most convenient, cost-effective way for families to safely meet simple needs, then no policies of government should stand in their way. And if the cheapest way to get high quality care is to use advances in web technology to allow a doctor to practice across state lines, then let them.
Effective reform must also deal with another source of needless cost and trouble in the health care system which comes from the trial bar. Every patient in America must have access to legal remedies in cases of bad medical practice. But this vital principle of law and medicine is not an invitation to endless, frivolous lawsuits from trial lawyers who exploit both patients and physicians alike. We must pass medical liability reform, and those reforms should eliminate lawsuits directed at doctors who follow clinical guidelines and adhere to patient safety protocols. If Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton are sincere in their conviction that health care coverage and quality is their first priority, then they will put the needs of patients before the demands of trial lawyers. They can’t have it both ways.
Finally, we must personally do everything we can to prevent expensive, chronic diseases. Our rights in this country are protected by our personal sense of responsibility for our own well being. Cases of diabetes are going up, not only in the baby-boom generation, but among younger Americans obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure are all on the rise. Parents must impart to their children a sense of personal responsibility for their health, nutrition, and exercise.
We can build a health care system that is more responsive to our needs and is delivered to more people at lower cost. The “solution,” my friends, isn’t a one-size-fits-all-big government takeover of health care. It resides where every important social advance has always resided — with the American people themselves, with well-informed American families, making practical decisions to address their imperatives for better health and more secure prosperity.
— John McCain is a Republican senator from Arizona who is currently running for president. < Back 1 2 
