Focus on the Individual

Focusing on the individual is all very well, but what about those individuals who are below the federal poverty line of $10,830 per year? 35% of uninsured Americans make less than that. What is the solution for them?

My family and I are among the fortunate individuals, as we are not among the 47 milion US individuals without insurance. But I can assure you that for most of the individuals (or consumers, as you wish)who do have health insurance, the insurance company is our enemy. Their primary goal is profit, and from my understanding, at least 1/4, (perhaps 35% by some estimates) of my insurance payments goes to paying for the systematic and skillfully-executed avoidance of making payments that the policy holder would reasonably expect to receive.

And individual physicians? we don't have one anymore because we won't pay $7200 extra a year for "concierge care."

So which individuals, Mr. Gingrich, do you represent with your views?

Does he really believe what he is saying? If so, he’s are either terribly deluded or living in the bubble of the elite; I suspect the latter as he is a man of intelligence and education. Pharmaceutical companies, medical assoc., hospital boards and insurance carriers contributed to his past campaigns, he KNOWS these people and, if he will admit it, he knows how greed has infiltrated every facet of the system. For most of his life he has lived in an elite, government welfare class with a great job benefit package at the tax payers’ expense. Why does he or any of the government employees enjoy better health care than the citizens they work for? Why do they think they are entitled? They work for us, not the other way around. It’s easy for someone who has it all to spew denial… he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know!
I’m glad Newt’s never had to forego treatment and I hope the future brings a time when we all can have what he has enjoyed at the tax payers’ expense. As he rails against a public system for us, he has had publically financed health care all the years he was in government. What a hypocrite! The Republican Party pretends it wants to be good stewards of our money, but they have legislated and continue to support a system of health care that skims 30% off the top for “Admin Fees” and CEO care packages. I wonder if we pay for those administrators to have good coverage as part of their compensation as well.
Let’s take each of his keys and examine them in the real world:
Key 1. Insurance will never promote care as long as it’s driven by profit & greed.
Key 2. True, until doctors are allowed to call the shots, care will be diminished. What he fails to say is that insurance providers, profit and greed are the major obstacles to prevent that from happening.
Key 3. The only choice he wants is the same one we have now. If providers were going to regulate themselves, they would be doing it now and we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Maybe in his Utopian bubble these keys are reality, but not in my world.

Having Gingrich adding to this debate is ridiculous! He is not a health expert and has special interests he is bound to serve. Why can't the Post find sources that report truth and facts without resorting to ideology?

do not side with big business and the insurance companies and pers drug companies.....side with the AMERICAN PEOPLE AND BARACK OBAMA .........THAT IS THE REASON HE WAS ELECTED...WHEN IT COMES TO HEALTHCARE IN OUR COUNTRY. Mr. Gingrich, there are so many people that have worked hard for our country their whole life that have contributed by taxes and hard work. do not turn your back on those people. Never turn your back on Americans, never just put business first. When you do that you cut the Fibers of AMERICA..which is its people...The business part is getting bail out after bail out...The people need their Healthcare and they need it now.

As a physician who switched from clinical medicine to administrative medicine, I have refocused my career on developing wellness programs. Hence emphasis on personal accountability, self-efficacy and individual and group capacity building is paramount in healthy living. However highlighting the need for individual focus does not let us off the hook for creating system-wide reforms.

Leading me to my next question? Why is a public option portrayed as misguided at best and undemocratic at worst? Should we be led to believe that government cannot be a vehicle for ingenious and efficient reform ever? Government is not always the solution but after years of unchecked abuses in the health care industry, government should be part of a multi-pronged solution.

In my childhood obesity initiative we teach as our slogan: We own the problem so that we can own the solution! This should be true of the individual and the government.