Ways to Improve Healthcare

• Eliminate federal caps on Medicare-funded residency slots to expand the supply of doctors, especially in underserved and rural areas where shortages are acute.

• Reform FDA approval to require only safety, not efficacy. Let real-world medical use determine effectiveness. This would reduce development costs and accelerate access to new drugs.

• Automatically approve drugs approved by trusted foreign regulators (e.g., in the EU, Canada, Japan, UK, or Australia) to speed access and reduce duplication.

• Eliminate “certificate of need” (CON) laws, which allow incumbent providers to block new competitors from opening clinics, hospitals, or imaging centers, limiting patient access and suppressing innovation.

• Encourage cash-pay competition by reducing regulatory barriers to direct primary care (DPC), surgical centers, and transparent “cash clinics” that offer affordable, up-front pricing and bypass insurance bureaucracy.

• Require all healthcare providers to post transparent, upfront prices for procedures and services to empower consumer choice and drive price competition.

• Eliminate surprise billing by requiring providers to disclose their network status and estimated costs before delivering non-emergency services, so patients aren’t blindsided by unexpected charges.

• Require healthcare providers to cover the cost of preventable injuries, infections, or complications acquired under their care, including hospital-acquired infections and surgical errors, to align incentives with patient safety.

• Make hospitals and doctors financially liable for billing errors and fraud, incentivizing careful oversight of billing practices and discouraging overcharging.

• Reform intellectual property laws to prevent drug companies from extending patents through minor, non-therapeutic changes to dosage, delivery mechanisms, or chemical structure (“evergreening”), thereby allowing generic competition sooner.

• Allow and encourage the use of catastrophic-only insurance plans coupled with health savings accounts (HSAs), especially for young and healthy individuals who need protection against major expenses, not comprehensive coverage.

• Allow cross-state insurance competition to break up regional monopolies, lower premiums, and encourage innovation in plan design.

• Reform Medicaid to give recipients more control over how funds are spent, possibly through vouchers or health savings mechanisms, instead of centrally managed reimbursements.

• Stop federal and state governments from mandating coverage of low-value or elective services, which inflate premiums and reduce the availability of affordable, high-deductible plans.

• Reform HIPAA to reduce unnecessary compliance burdens that inhibit effective care. For example, current rules treat a nurse reviewing patient notes written by other clinicians as a potential violation, even when done to provide better care. This discourages care coordination, wastes administrative resources, and adds to provider burnout.