Today, Americans have less control over their health care decisions. More than four out of every five workers are enrolled in HMOs and other managed care plans. It is employers who choose these plans. There is a loss of patient control and choice due to the massive shift from traditional indemnity plans to managed care plans. We need to allow patients to appeal denials of care.
Patient privacy is increasingly at risk.
Government red tape, control, rules and regulations which govern health care is mushrooming. Layer upon layer of regulations are heaped onto health care. This not only causes distortions in the market but contributes to increases in costs and therefore decreased income for health care professionals 5. During this next session we must meet the challenge to pay for the explosive demand of medical services which will be required as the nation's population ages. We must overhaul a system which has been mired down in complex rules and regulations in order to meet the needs of our children's generation and beyond.