Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled for a second time on an important challenge to the Affordable Care Act, it looks like the 5-year-old health reform law is here to stay for a while.
Unless our nation elects a president and Congress interested in repealing and replacing the law, it doesn’t appear the federal government will address what the ACA failed to do: reduce health care costs.
Health insurance companies across the country are seeking rate increases of 20 to 40 percent, attributing much of their rate hikes to new, unhealthy customers insured under the new law. In Georgia, health insurance carriers are seeking rate hikes averaging 15 percent, with some as high as 38 percent, according to the state insurance commissioner’s office.
If we are to get a handle on escalating health care costs — from escalating premiums to higher co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance costs — the solution will have to come from the states and not from the federal government. Georgia is one of those states trying to do just that, with legislation aimed at eliminating the practice of defensive medicine.
In 2010, Gallup surveyed doctors nationwide and found one in four health care dollars could be attributed to defensive medicine, when physicians order tests, procedures and medications than are clinically necessary. They do it to prevent potential litigation. A survey released earlier this year by the Official Journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons found more than 75 percent of neurosurgeons said they practice defensive medicine to protect themselves from lawsuits.
These unnecessary health care costs are passed along to consumers and taxpayers. BioScience Valuation, a health care economics firm, estimates these costs will reach $487 billion in 2015.
Georgia is among five states looking to end defensive medicine.
I have introduced legislation, the Patient Compensation Act (PCA), to eliminate the broken, dysfunctional, medical malpractice litigation system. Instead, we would create a no-blame administrative model in which an injured patient would file a claim that would be decided by a panel of health care experts. If the panel determined an avoidable medical injury had occurred, the patient would be compensated.
With no need to worry about lawsuits under the new patient compensation system, doctors would no longer need to practice defensive medicine. That would save all of us money; health care costs would start to decrease, as would health insurance rates.
My PCA legislation has been pending in the Legislature for a couple of years. This year, I rewrote it to feature a provision that is capturing the attention of physicians. Not only would doctors no longer be sued, but they would save significantly on their expensive medical malpractice insurance coverage.
BioScience Valuation estimates that over a 10-year period, such a patients’ compensation system would save Georgia taxpayers almost $7 billion, and Georgia employers, more than $30 billion.
Think of how welcome the word “savings” would be to taxpayers, employers and individuals who bear the burden of increasing health care costs. All we have seen since the passage of ACA is red ink as costs continue to spiral. The only way to bring sanity to our health care system is to embrace a state-based solution such as the Patient Compensation Act.
State Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, is executive director of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce.
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