Real Health-Care Reform Lies with the Public, not with Congress

   Maybe we will never get true medical reform because we are looking to the wrong people to do the reforming.
   It isn't those in Congress who should be turning the switch. It isn't the president.
   But, since we are all sitting around waiting for Congress and the president to do the modifying, it isn't occurring to us that it is we who hold the keys to change.
   Real reform -- to me -- would be to knock insurance out of the equation -- or at least to knock it out somewhat, get rid of a lot of it. Ironically, the reform measures on Capitol Hill deal with how insurance should fit into the health-care system, not whether it should.
   What if doctors started not accepting insurance, not asking for it?  A doctor's visit might cost, say, $30 and that wouldn't be the co-pay; It would be the full pay.
   What if doctors offices expanded on their services, offering as much testing (maybe even MRIs) in-house? Simple surgeries? Bring them in-house, as well. Get as much of the service and as much of the surgeries and procedures to fit under the $30 fee (or $60, or however much) as possible.
   If medical care of this fashion became a movement, prices would come down.
   What if you put the doctor back in charge of his (or her) own practice? Instead of insurance making the call on which tests, procedures, and treatments were allowed, what if we let the doctor make the call?
   What if you offered one-stop doctoring? What if an oncologist, a cardiologist, a spine specialist-chiropractor, and so forth were all in the same practice? Then, when a patient came in to see the general practitioner, he (or she) could taken down the hall to a specialist the minute a question came up about a specialty concern. Surely, medicine would be quicker, better and more thorough.
   The more care you could fit under one hat (meaning, into one doctor), the better. And, since one person can't know everything, the more care you could fit under one roof, the better. Integrating health care this way would surely improve the quality of the care.
    We don't need Congress to bring about these changes. We just need to inspire more doctors to open such practices. And then, we, the public, need to go to such doctors' offices. I know I would be inclined to patronize them. If I'm going to get more comprehensive care, and it is going to cost less, of course I am going to go that route.