What is the greatest health care challenge facing Maryland today, and how do you plan to address it?
The most significant health challenges in Maryland relate to growing mental illness and excessive use of drugs, both legal and illegal. To address these issues, citizens must have freedom to choose their own personal medical care, rather than be subjected to government mandates, based on dubious scientific data, which disturb and debilitate normal functioning and well-being in a free society.
Maryland’s hospitals operate under a unique contract with the federal government that promotes community, equity, and value. It also contributes significantly to Maryland's economy. How do you plan to support the continued success of the Maryland Model?
Although I don't know much about the "unique contract" of hospitals, we all can see the dysfunctional system of public healthcare - the intimidation of healthcare workers to invest in unproven and dangerous procedures concerning "covid". The faulty testing and political nature of healthcare treatment in collusion with "big pharma". When hospitals, like schools, are run and controlled entirely by government, any semblance of "community equity, and value" is in grave peril. I would support greater freedom of choice in the operation of hospitals - to serve patients for health needs, rather than government for political needs. Medical malpractice is a leading cause of death - so much needs correction that is not likely to be solved through more government control. Serving the Maryland "economy"? How is that happening, exactly.
Maryland is experiencing a shortage of health care practitioners, especially nurses, that we project will worsen in the years ahead. How do you plan to address the immediate crisis and what will you do to make sure we have a robust and sustainable health care workforce pipeline?
After a nurse receives basic qualifications in a particular field, hiring such workers must not be restricted by such political goals as "mask" and "vaxx" requirements that put such healthcare workers at risk of their own health and well-being. Care of the sick, especially in times of "covid" madness, must not force healthcare workers to engage in practices that harm the relationships of family members involved with the hospital system. Hospitals must be allowed to hire and retain personnel based on rational criteria, not the arbitrary and unscientific demands of government mandates that are entirely political in nature.
How would you increase availability of and access to health care for Marylanders?
Return healthcare to the free marketplace, rather than government dominated "insurance" with its highly centralized government control. When poor are unable to pay for necessary medical costs, there could be tax incentives for physicians and hospitals to care for such persons on a no-fee basis. Let the private insurance market compete for programs that offer a wide range of coverage. Eliminate the widespread "taxpayer-funded" government programs that make the remote and unaccountable the basic doctor-patient relationship of trust.
What policies will you pursue to improve health for all Marylanders? Please also consider the social determinants of health?
Reduce government restrictions on hospitals and physicians - that limit their ability to exercise judgment in the care of patients. Remove subsidies from taxpayer-funded "government" programs, whether through so-called "insurance" or outright grants and payments to the poor under the guise of "welfare". Allow hospitals to become established through private charity; with only the minimal amount of so-called "safety" in the nature of physical sanitary conditions. Again, set up tax deductions and other such incentives for medical care of the poor. Competition and choice will work much better for the best quality health and well-being of all. Improve the conditions for everyone to have a self-sustaining job in the economy. Improve quality in education of the young through parent choice in the private sector.
How do you plan to address consumers' growing exposure to health care costs, such as high deductible health plans and rising prescription drug prices in Maryland?
Competition and choice in healthcare insurance will naturally provide the best means to assure low cost and high value in healthcare services. Prescription drugs is just another field for free market to operate better than subsidized by taxpayers. There are many low-cost remedies that are alternatives to high-cost treatments. hydroxycloroquin and invermetic, in the situation of so-called "covid". Individual freedom of choice in healthcare places the relationship between doctor and patient into a natural sense of trust and goodwill that is not found in remote, unaccountable government programs.
Maryland’s worsening medical liability climate, as noted in a recent independent report, threatens access to, and affordability of, health care services in Maryland. Plaintiffs’ attorneys typically take 40% of a medical malpractice judgment. Do you support limiting attorneys’ fees so that the affected individuals can receive more of their settlement or judgment? What additional reforms would you support that balance supporting individuals and families harmed by medical malpractice with ensuring continued access to services in a community?
Although there are arguments against restriction of attorney fees, I think the best course of action is allow these matters to be settled between client and attorney. Competition and choice will serve well to keep costs down. But some attorneys have higher skills than others; and high risk of loss is a gamble that the attorney takes on who gets NOTHING if the case is not won. That said, I think a limit on compensation for "pain and suffering" is logical to assure some measure of restrain from extremely high court decisions. The high cost of medical insurance is an issue that needs to be addressed in some way. Medical doctors need some relief from the high cost of insurance to practice medicine.
What are your priorities should you be elected, not confined to health care?
In these "covid" times, it is most important to resist the political urge for government mandates with masks and vaccinations, which have dubious, if not dangerous, results on the health of the general public. Freedom for healthcare means to reduce taxation as a means to care for poor. Better to provide incentives for medical professionals to receive a tax incentive instead of outright payments to hospitals from government, which simply drives up the costs for all. Free marketplace competition and choice must be stimulated and supported at every opportunity.