Ron Paul on Healthcare Quality:

Ron Paul on Healthcare Quality:

A summary of Ron Paul's beliefs is that the Health Maintenance Organizations have a negative impact on the quality of healthcare services due to the limitations on the available options to patients. I agree with these beliefs because these organizations have primarily increased premiums on healthcare coverage, increased medical costs, and hindered patient access. As one of the major ways for providing managed care, health maintenance organizations are theoretically expected to lower healthcare costs by providing the care providers with rewards to keep the patients healthy.

However, the HMOs have developed as ineffective systems that have negative impact on the quality of healthcare since they facilitate a closed provider network because their approach to cost-containment is problematic. The ineffectiveness of these systems and their negative effect on healthcare quality is evident in the fact that patients have started to revolt against them despite of the popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Moreover, several concerns have been raised about the ability of the systems as patients have questioned physicians' and insurance companies' motives when denied care services.

In agreement with the views of this politician, the Health Maintenance Organizations were not developed due to free-market demand but because of government monopolies or mandates. As a government mandate, the system has failed to deliver the theoretical benefits and resulted in unexpected consequences (Paul, 2006). Similar to other government intervention mechanisms in the private market, the HMOs have contributed to spiraling medical costs and poor quality of care. Therefore, an outright socialized medicine system or free market health care system could be the most suitable method of reducing health care costs and enhancing quality because every stakeholder in the field is actively involved.

Newt Gingrich Views on Healthcare:

As an individual who is committed to a better health care system for all Americans, Newt Gingrich has been involved in various initiatives that are geared towards improving healthcare services. Gingrich believes that there is a great need to repeal and substitute the huge government health bill with actual solutions that will lessen costs and enhance health outcomes. In addition to opposing the Obamacare because of its failure to accomplish universal coverage, he proposes the Patient Power Plan that will change the current system into a coordinated and innovative system rather than a broken and fragmented one.

I support Gingrich's proposal of the Patient Power Plan as the most suitable health care system that make health coverage more affordable, accessible, and portable. Since the plan gives patients an incentive to efficiently use medical care, it prevents excessive costs that are linked to overuse of medical care and excessive administrative burdens. One of the major advantages of such a plan is that it allows patients to self-insure for several likely medical bills through initiatives like medical savings accounts. Secondly, the plan eliminates all costs that are linked to having third parties to evaluate the transactions between patients and care providers resulting in decreased administrative costs. Third, the Patient Power Plan will lessen state regulations that enforce many benefits that must be offered by every health insurance policy sold.