Kay Ivey on Health Care

Incentivize medical professionals to build rural practices

ObamaCare does much more harm than good

While providing affordable health care to every American is a noble, compassionate goal, President Obama's federally mandated plan will do much more harm than good. If it is passed, almost 120 million Americans could lose their private coverage. In the end, government bureaucrats would make your health care choices? Not your doctor, not you.

On top of that, taxes would have to be raised on almost all Americans to pay for these "free" services. And, if a serious budget crisis ever hit, the government could limit the amount of care and services you and your family would be able to receive.

Each state creates its own insurance pool for high risk

• Remove the tax penalty for families who choose to buy their own health insurance.
• Spend our federal health care dollars more responsibly, instead of spending $1.6 trillion on a plan financed by tax increases and savings from Medicare and Medicaid.
• Develop health insurance plans for each state, not for the whole country. Every state faces its own health care challenges; each state should be able to create its own insurance pool for high-cost individuals.
• We need more legal reform. We need tort-reform legislation that addresses the exorbitant cost of malpractice insurance for doctors due to the frivolous lawsuit abuse brought on by greedy trial lawyers.
• Create a new category of one-time insurance called "patient indemnity insurance" to purchase coverage for a botched surgery or other medical complication.
• Reform malpractice law by granting immunity to medical professionals who provide emergency or charity care