Could this health care model work?

Scott:  So you talked about a paradigm shift when it comes to cancer treatment, before.  Let's... erase the chalkboard and start over.  What would you do if we could start from scratch in terms of how we treat cancer?

Dr. Patrick Quillin:  Well, first of all we have, in America at least, we have the worst of both possible systems.  So there are countries around the world that have social medicine.  England, France, Japan.  There are a lot of countries where you go to the doctor and it's basically free.  That's a state-run health care organization.  Then there are private systems, where you go to that doctor, clinic and you pay cash.  We have the worst of both fields in which we have government regulations, that restrict access to many therapies.  And so we have what's called the ICD 10.  The International Code of Diseases, which is the Bible of health care.  And it says 'this is what we'll pay for.  And anything else we won't pay for.'  And so there is this inner sanctum of people who decide what goes in that book.  Nutrition is not on the list.  

We are at a conference right now where they're talking about many alternative cancer therapies.  None of them are on the list.  They're not on the ICD 10 billing code.  In my humble opinion, what would fix health care in America and most countries is a free market system.  What you find is, if you rewind the video about thirty years, you go back to plastic surgery.  And most insurance companies said this is elective, this is optional.  If you want to you know, a face tuck, Lasik, you want to do any plastic surgery, go ahead.  We're not going to pay for it.  And because of that, it was out of pocket.  And because of that, it became very competitive.  And their prices are lower and their quality is higher, because it's a free market system.  

If you look at, compare that to standard intensive care unit.  For instance, medicare will not pay any nutrition therapies until the patient ends up in the intensive care unit with cachexia and clinical malnutrition.  That doesn't make any sense.  If we had a free market system, we could solve a lot of those dilemmas.  And then the insurance company could provide actuarial insurance based upon statistics.  Why would you insure a burning building?