Newt Gingrich in Saving Lives and Saving Money: Transforming Health and Healthcare

On Health Care: System broken due to “perfect storm” of converging problems

The blockbuster 2000 hit movie, The Perfect Storm, was based on a book written about “the storm of the century” that hit off the coast of Gloucester, MA in October, 1991. The strongest storm in recorded history, this perfect storm was actually two separate storms and one hurricane that combined into a single fury of 100-foot, unnavigable seas.

America’s healthcare system is nearing the edge of its own perfect storm. The system is broken.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p. 13-14 Sep 22, 2003

On Health Care: Market dynamics can save healthcare, not government control

Healthcare is currently one of the few industries not properly influenced by market dynamics. The essence of the problem is that the consumers (the patients) are not the buyers. They do not possess the financial leverage, which consumers have in almost every other sector of our economy, because they do not pay the bills.

Examples like the now-defunct Soviet Union have confirmed that centralized government control employing coercion through regulation or edict is not a good solution. America is the best current example of a democracy in which people loan their power to the government but remain the ultimate decision makers.

This attempt at centralized governmental control has spawned many of the raging storms we have today-- dissatisfied patients, restricted access, huge numbers of uninsured, unacceptable medical mistakes, a lack of information technology, and upwardly spiraling costs. These issues are exacerbated by our growing reliance on the government to pay for services

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p. 22-23 Sep 22, 2003

On Education: Waive interest on student loans for math & science grads

The inability of our system to produce mathematicians & scientists posed a threat to our national security in the highest order.

It is an objective reality that we are not producing enough educated 18-year olds capable of sustaining this society in the 21st century.

The depth of this problem dictates that we must be bold in finding a solution. This includes serious considerations of notions like waiving interest on student loans for undergraduates that major in math or science.

We must rethink how we educate our children in math and science. In my judgment it is harder than most other kinds of learning. There are many reasons in a wealthy society that people at the margins do not go into math or science. One is the fact that there is no immediate advantage to majoring in something that is harder and requires more work.

We should go beyond force-feeding numbers and theories to a level of discovery where a child wonders what the answers are and goes in search of them for the excitement of it.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.180-182 Sep 22, 2003

On Technology: Focus on investing in science and discovery

To meet the challenge of investing in science & discovery, I believe we should focus on the following areas:

Math & science education: We must fundamentally change the way we educate our children about science & discovery, to produce more math & science students.
Increased funding for the NSF (National Science Foundation): Increase annual funding from $4.7 billion to $15 billion
We must fund large-scale marquee projects like Internet-based astronomical data and collected.
High priority for CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Mobilize a movement in favor of scientific research
Space: space exploration has a proven record of achieving major scientific breakthroughs.

climatology data.

Reserve room in science budgets for non-traditional research because peer review is ultimately a culturally conservative and risk-adverse model.

Prizes to advance science like the $25,000 prize Charles Lindbergh Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.180-189 Sep 22, 2003

On Technology: Supports federal investment in space for science & discovery

Space exploration has a proven record of achieving major scientific breakthroughs that directly affect our lives both from the research that takes place in space and the process itself. Some of the most important research being done anywhere on nanotechnology is carried out by NASA.

Space exploration has also been the most successful vehicle for translating the need to invest in science and discovery to the American people. It is a visible, tangible, results-oriented program that instills national pride and helps us quickly understand why research is important. There is something magical about space exploration that microscopes and lab coats cannot convey.

The NASA community is aware of how incredibly important it is to continue to push the boundaries of our knowledge and its benefits to our society, starting of course with the astronauts themselves.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.189 Sep 22, 2003

On Social Security: Retirement policies & tax policies ARE health policies

21st century healthcare would break down barriers of isolation & encourage people to stay active. In a very real sense national retirement & tax policies ARE health policies When these policies make it harder to stay active and easier to become indolent, we are fostering illness, decline, and actually increasing our health expenses. Good health is about a lot more than health policy.

69% of workers aged 45 to 74 reported that they plan to work in some capacity in their retirement years, even if they won the lottery. For those aged 33 to 52, the younger boomers, 75% said they would work into their retirement years.

The baby boomer’s desire to stay active is good news for the economy. We must recognize that rethinking government rules for retirement and reforming Medicare to encourage economic activity are key steps toward a better future. The policies that may have made sense in earlier eras when people died younger are simply not applicable in an era when more people are healthier longer.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.193-194 Sep 22, 2003

On Health Care: Tax credits for developing technology for disabilities

Medical advances are enabling people to live longer than previously possible with such conditions as spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, or Downs Syndrome. In addition, increasing numbers of people are now living into their eighties and beyond. Beyond the ethical obligation of caring for our country’s most vulnerable population, we must address the health of people with disabilities if we are to make any progress in controlling healthcare costs.

A basic principle for a 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare for people with disabilities is to keep these individuals independent for as long as possible.

We should be exploring tax credits and other financial incentives to encourage companies to develop the right technologies for people with disabilities.

Now, people who can benefit from technologies are often prevented from acquiring them because they are expensive and insurance companies are reluctant to pay for them.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.196-197 Sep 22, 2003

On Health Care: Re-focus Medicare on preventive health instead of sickness

The essence of why Medicare is in critical condition is that it focuses on sickness and not health. It pays for your open-heart surgery, but it will not pay for your beta-blocker. It pays to amputate your foot, but it will not pay for your insulin. It will pay for your drugs while you are in the hospital, but it will not pay for the same drugs that would have kept you out of the hospital. Not only should Medicare pay for drugs, but it should pay for your SilverSneakers membership and Weight Watchers too!

Medicare must be strengthened to include a focus on outcomes-based healthcare. Immediately drugs should be reimbursed in order to de-incentivize reactive acute care. However, the current budgetary structure is clearly biased in favor of reactive care.

It should not matter if a patient is treated in a hospital, in a doctor’s office or in their home. The flow of resources should follow the patient and not be driven by a series of bureaucratic structures.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.201 Sep 22, 2003

On Health Care: Save dollars and save lives--so transform urgently

Understanding the difference between transformation and reformation is difficult. Taking a crack at transforming the health and healthcare system is daunting. The fact is transformation will not be easy. However, transforming health and heatlhcare is urgent, important, doable, and necessary.

Transforming health and healthcare is urgent, because it is about saving lives and saving money. Never before have we been at this historic moment in time where transforming a system as big as health and healthcare can and will mean so much to so many. The urgency comes from the ability to save thousands of lives every year if only we would transform the system to take advantage of the technology available to us right now.

Tranformation of healthcare is doable if we each do our share of the lifting. As an individual, become more responsible for your own health. As a user of healthcare, become proactive with your healthcare providers. As a citizen, let your voice be heard.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.205 Sep 22, 2003

On Homeland Security: Biological threat bigger than nuclear threat

Biological warfare is the largest threat to the human race, a substantially bigger threat than nuclear war. If the US is hit with an engineered biological agent for which no vaccines are available, we are in for problems of colossal proportions.

Biological threats for which we have no rapid diagnostic tests & no drug treatments are so great that we should consider the preparation of a biological defensive system the highest priority in the American national security system and the most important job facing the new DHS.

Vision and strategy design
Information technology investment
Vaccinations and immunization
Post-event treatment
Civil defense transformation into a comprehensive 21st century system
Biosecurity and education.

Source: Saving Lives and Saving Money, by Newt Gingrich, p.275-284 Sep 22, 2003

The above quotations are from Saving Lives and Saving Money Transforming Health and Healthcare, by Newt Gingrich, with Dana Pavey and Anne Woodbury. Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Newt Gingrich. Click here for Newt Gingrich on all issues.
*Newt Gingrich on other issues:*
Abortion Budget/Economy Civil Rights Corporations Crime Drugs Education Energy/Oil Environment Families Foreign Policy Free Trade	Govt. Reform Gun Control Health Care Homeland Security Immigration Jobs Principles/Values Social Security Tax Reform Technology/Infrastructure War/Iraq/Mideast Welfare/Poverty
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org! Click for details -- or send donations to: 1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140 E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org (We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: Feb 22, 2019