Recently President Obama said he wants to meet with both Democrats and Republicans to sift through the best health care ideas from both sides.  He challenged Republicans—who to this point have opposed Obama’s health care bill—saying, “if you have a better idea, show it to me.”  In an attempt to answer the call, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and John Goodman, CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, laid out ten ideas for Obama to consider in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.

The WSJ article begins by stating that “the best ideas out there are not those that were passed by the House and Senate last year, which consist of more spending, more regulations and more bureaucracy. If the president is serious about building a system that delivers more quality choices at lower cost for every American, here’s where he should start:”

Make insurance affordable – The current taxation of health insurance is arbitrary and unfair, giving lavish subsidies to some, like those who get Cadillac coverage from their employers, and almost no relief to people who have to buy their own. More equitable tax treatment would lower costs for individuals and families. Many health economists conclude that tax relief for health insurance should be a fixed-dollar amount, independent of the amount of insurance purchased. A step in the right direction would be to give Americans the choice of a generous tax credit or the ability to deduct the value of their health insurance up to a certain amount.

Make health insurance portable – The first step toward genuine portability—and the best way of solving the problems of pre-existing conditions—is to change federal policy. Employers should be encouraged to provide employees with insurance that travels with them from job to job and in and out of the labor market. Also, individuals should have the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines. When insurers compete for consumers, prices will fall and quality will improve.

Allow doctors and patients to control costs – Doctors and patients are currently trapped by government-imposed payment rates. Under Medicare, doctors are not paid if they communicate with their patients by phone or e-mail.  Medicare pays by task—there is a list of about 7,500—but doctors do not get paid to advise patients on how to lower their drug costs or how to comparison shop on the Web. In short, they get paid when people are sick, not to keep them healthy.

So long as total cost to the government does not rise and quality of care does not suffer, doctors should have the freedom to repackage and reprice their services. And payment should take into account the quality of the care that is delivered. Once physicians are liberated under Medicare, private insurers will follow.

Inform consumers – Patients need to have clear, reliable data about cost and quality before they make decisions about their care. But finding such information is virtually impossible. Sources like Medicare claims data (stripped of patient information) can help consumers answer important questions about their care. Government data—paid for by the taxpayers—can answer these questions and should be made public.

Eliminate junk lawsuits – Last year the president pledged to consider civil justice reform. We do not need to study or test medical malpractice any longer: The current system is broken. States across the country—Texas in particular—have already implemented key reforms including liability protection for using health information technology or following clinical standards of care; caps on non-economic damages; loser pays laws; and new alternative dispute resolution where patients get compensated for unexpected, adverse medical outcomes without lawyers, courtrooms, judges and juries.

For the full list of GOP proposals to President Obama, click here.  And if you’ve got some ideas of your own, we’d love to hear them; just leave a comment below.

Since Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts Senate race broke the Democrats’ filibuster-proof Senate majority, President Obama’s health care bill has been reeling.  In an attempt to revive his health care agenda, Obama has invited both Democratic and Republican leaders to discuss possible compromises in a televised gathering on February 25^th.

The Associated Press reports that “Obama’s move came amid widespread complaints that efforts so far by him and his Democratic allies in Congress have been too partisan and secretive.”  Backlash stems from closed door deals that gave kickbacks to secure favorable votes, especially glaring since Obama initially suggested that health care debates should be televised on C-SPAN.

As the AP reports, “The meeting’s prospects for success are far from clear. GOP leaders demanded Sunday that Democrats start from scratch, and White House aides said Obama had no plans to do so.”

Many liberal groups want Congress to employ their lawmaking muscle to enact health care reform by reconciliation, a measure that can bypass Republican support.  But while President Obama has remained adamant about passing a health care bill similar to what passed in the House and Senate, lately he’s shown more willingness to consider Republican input.  In an interview with CBS’s Katie Couric, Obama said that he wants to look at the best ideas from both parties and arrive at some agreements.

But such agreements won’t come easily.  The White House maintains that “Obama does not intend to restart the health care legislative process,” whereas Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks for many Republicans when he says that “if we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill.”

As the push for health care reform has stalled since the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, conservative lawmakers across the country are advocating constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates.

The mandates in question, separate bills passed by the U.S. House and Senate, would impose fines on people who elect to go without health insurance.  Their aim is to expand the pool of insured citizens by making coverage mandatory, which could help to offset the high costs of insuring those with preexisting conditions and more serious health care needs.  But those wanting to ban such mandates believe that the federal government has no authority to force citizens to purchase anything, including health insurance.

The Associated Press reports that according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, “legislators in 34 states have filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions rejecting health insurance mandates.”  In many states, “the proposals began as a backlash to Democratic health care bills in Congress.  Instead of backing away after a Massachusetts election gave Senate Republicans the filibuster power to halt the health care legislation, many state lawmakers are ramping up their efforts with new enthusiasm.”

So while federal health care legislation has slowed, conservative state legislators have stayed busy, trying to thwart the Democrats’ efforts to force coverage upon Americans. “We need to move ahead no matter what kind of maneuvering continues in Washington, D.C.,” said Missouri Senator Jane Cunningham.

Just one week removed from Republican Scott Brown’s lopsided win in the Massachusetts Senate race, healthcare reform is more confusing than ever.  The administration has vowed to press ahead with healthcare legislation, while opponents of the bill are urging President Obama to simply start over.

According to the LA Times, White House senior advisor David Axelrod said that the “president will not walk away from the American people, will not hand them over to the tender mercies of health insurance companies who take advantage of them.”  Equally strong words were issued by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who counters that “what we need to do is start over and get it right.”

Both Republicans and Democrats continued to dispute the message and effect of Scott Brown’s win last week. The loss has shaken Democrats, who lost a Senate seat entrenched in the Democratic Party for nearly 50 years, but don’t see the loss as public disapproval of the health care bill, as Republicans do.  Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican and a vocal opponent of the healthcare plan, said that “Massachusetts was a rejection of the president’s massive policies of spending and debt.”

Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that Democrats must “pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay.”  But according to McConnell, “Republicans want to start over on a bipartisan basis with legislation that would reduce malpractice lawsuits and allow individuals to deduct the cost of their coverage from their taxes the way corporations can.”  So the existing legislation, “with its huge price tag, is a nonstarter,” he said.