Quote Originally Posted by Don Corleone
And if you want to control health care spending costs: institute common sense torte reform:
a- lawyers must be required to bill their clients, even if they lose (this business of if we lose, you don't pay encourages abuse)
b- you shouldn't be able to shop jurisdictions and
c- punitive damages should be given to the government, as revenue, not the plaintiff.
It's worth noting that the fastest growing parts of the budget are the healthcare entitlements of medicare/medicaid. While some sensible tort reform would help, I think a better way would be to make people more accountable for their own health. For example, if you're a morbidly obese chain smoker, your increased healthcare costs are required to be picked up by everyone else- even if you lead a meticulously healthy lifestyle.

I think this should be addressed by allowing insurance companies and government entitlements to to charge higher premiums/deductibles to people who lead clearly unhealthy lifestyles. The benefit would be two-fold. First, and most obviously, people whose lifestyles cost us more would pay more. Second, once you start hitting people in the wallet, most will take more responsibility in their own health. If being fat is costing you money every month, you'll have a tangible reason to deal with the problem.