By Zev Auerbach

According to a recent article in the Miami Herald, health care representatives from South Florida made suggestions to Washington on ways of reducing health care costs. Those suggestions included cutting back on the number of tests ordered by over-cautious doctors and encouraging terminally ill patients to die at home.

Zev Auerbach

Have we lost our minds or merely our decency?

While there are clearly inefficiencies in our health care system that need correcting, the patients and the practitioners are not the root of the problem.

The purpose of this column is to focus our attention on public enemy #1: The health insurance companies.

A nationwide study estimates that 25 percent of health care costs are administrative.

President Obama is accurate when he calls our health system “a ticking time bomb on the Federal Reserve.” Doctor’s can’t survive. Nurses are underpaid. Hospitals are struggling. 50 million Americans can’t afford insurance and countless Americans with insurance are plagued by constantly increasing premiums.

And yet, insurance companies are prospering. To me, the problem is clear.

And the reason it’s not being addressed is just as clear. The health insurance companies maintain one of the most powerful lobbyist groups in Washington.

It’s time to tighten the regulation of health insurance companies. 

While I’m not advocating government controlled health care, I am advocating strict control of insurance premiums. Just like the utility companies, health care is one of those select industries that can dramatically impact the public health and welfare and therefore needs a heightened level of regulation.

I am also calling for the ban on any political contribution to politicians from health insurance companies and their lobbyists.

In conclusion, there are numerous problems with our health care system. Let’s fix the big one first. 

Control the insurance companies and you begin to control health care.

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Zev Auerbach is an Aventura City Commissioner, however, these views are his own and do not reflect the consensus of the Aventura City Commission.