The Big Ideas Project

Publicly funded clinical drug trials. The current system of financing research through government imposed patent monopolies is incredibly inefficient. As a result, drugs that would be cheap in a free market sell at outrageous prices. This vast gap between the patent-protected price and the production costs encourage corruption. If the government paid for the clinical trials (buying rights to promising compounds) all new drugs could be sold at generic prices.

Submitted by Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Health Dec. 10, 2014, 1:37 a.m.

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#201

1194 votes

Stop subsidizing the meat and dairy industry and industrialized farming - these industries create food that harm our health and promotes animal cruelty and damages the environment. I want my tax dollars to support organic farmers which improves health, helps the environment, and cause no animals to suffer. Eating meat & dairy increase our health care costs.

Submitted by Lynn Putnam (Food Revolution Network, T. Colin Campbell Foundation) in Health Jan. 7, 2015, 10:18 p.m.

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#209

1169 votes

Bring medical costs under control. medical expenses and hospital billing are atrocious. Next, rein in health insurance companies -- their profits are sky-high, and premiums are too high for the benefits (or lack thereof).

Submitted by Donna . in Health Nov. 24, 2014, 1:58 p.m.

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#215

1139 votes

Transparency in healthcare pricing: Require healthcare providers (hospitals, doctors practices) to publish (e.g., post on website) the prices charges for standard procedures, services, and supplies. This will allow patients to comparison shop, allow data mining to uncover and publicize extraordinarily high charges, and encourage responsible pricing. If we can require gas prices to be posted publicly, we can do the same for the price of a appendectomy, a mammogram, a flu shot, an x-ray, etc.

Submitted by KB_LB in Health Jan. 10, 2015, 8:45 p.m.

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#218

1128 votes

Merged Idea

I think we should go back to "health care companies" being non-profit. When health care and profit are in the same sentence it is no longer about the health of the patient it is about the profit of the corporation.

Submitted by Mbkemp1 in Health Dec. 10, 2014, 1:25 p.m.

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#219

1127 votes

High wage earning citizens who now do not have medicare deductions taken from income should have this done. All citizens should contribute to national health care as long as they can afford to do so.

Submitted by the answertothegap in Health Dec. 29, 2014, 11:10 a.m.

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#225

1092 votes

Merged Idea

No revolving door between our regulatory agencies (FDA, USDA, EPA) and the corporations that they are responsible for regulating. No agency personnel can be employed by or receive any income from a corporation that they regulate for 15 years. No employee, manager, or board member of such a corporation can be employed by a government regulatory agency

Submitted by Kathy R. from IL in Health Dec. 10, 2014, 10:43 p.m.

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#229

1066 votes

Currently, the FDA has two conflicting objectives: 1) to ensure the safety of our food and medicine, and 2) to promote the food and medicine industries. The FDA needs to be dedicated to only one of these, preferably #1, safety. Let the industries promote themselves.

Submitted by Bruce in Health Jan. 8, 2015, 8:20 a.m.

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#229

1066 votes

How we handle mental illness. We need outreach to younger kids and teenagers dealing with depression or bullying. The criminally insane should be in facilities that are equipped to handle them and not in prisons. We need facilities and programs as a preventative resource to assist families and individuals dealing with mental illness. This should include work programs as well as financial resources to assist families. We need more free drug rehab programs.

Submitted by jake in Health Dec. 29, 2014, 11:15 p.m.

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#240

989 votes

Establish ANY kind of federal oversight of concentrated animal feeding operations. Ex: Make agribusiness accountable for the untreated animal wastes that contaminate surrounding communities. Establish some sort of limit on the size of "factory farms" to reduce the overcrowding of animals, curtailing the overuse of antibiotics. Provide at least minimal regulation of conditions on these farms and prevent the passage of unconstitutional "ag-gag" bills.

Submitted by shawcat in Health Dec. 10, 2014, 3:14 p.m.

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#255

907 votes

Merged Idea

Ban large-scale production of GMOs globally. These foods offer nothing productive in terms of economic advantage for the farmers, and instead jack up health care costs in the forms or respiratory problems, toxic reactions from pesticide overexposure, birth defects, along with obstructing food biodiversity - to name a few. The health and economic benefits of eliminating this in our food chain far outweigh the profits of the agri-businesses who engineer them.

Submitted by StacyG in Health Dec. 10, 2014, 4:49 p.m. 1

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#282

791 votes

I think Politicians should have the same healthcare that the voters have. This way, there will be a better understanding of what is in it, hopefully and how it is applied.

Submitted by thinking1 in Health Jan. 14, 2015, 9:33 p.m.

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#285

784 votes

House the homeless, don't warehouse them. Many homeless are on SSI and SSDI and can afford a place for $400/month. I know a case where the housing authority pays $500 and the person pays $300 for an $800 apartment. It would be a lot cheaper for everyone for the housing authority to build passive solar to European PassivHaus standard, with solar heat and hot water, minimal footprint. This can be done cheaper. Rocky Mountain Institute, rmi.org, has can show HUD how to do this.

Submitted by Daniel S. from CA in Health Jan. 12, 2015, 2:46 p.m.

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#288

782 votes

Mandatory, minimum nurse-patient ratios in all states ( not just California) It will raise the # of jobs & amount of pay for the working classes, make nurses lives & jobs more sustainable & primarily : Improve patient safety.

Submitted by Rita Collins in Health Nov. 16, 2014, 4 p.m.

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#291

775 votes

Return full food stamps to elderly & disabled. We are at higher risk of illness if not able to eat healthy food. Therefore, medical care through medicare or medicaid soars due to at-risk people not having enough to eat

Submitted by Teresa in Health Jan. 14, 2015, 7 p.m.

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#296

767 votes

Abortion and birth control is not only a woman's right but a national AND worldwide necessity for the health of our planet! They must be made easily available to all who want them.

Submitted by Julia M. from HI in Health Nov. 20, 2014, 4:48 p.m.

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#298

764 votes

More Food Stamps for the people who need it most : Seniors, Veterans, the Disabled & Children !!!!

Submitted by & R. from FL in Health Nov. 11, 2014, 5:03 p.m.

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#299

760 votes

Restore the powers of the FDA and EPA and give them the funding they need to enforce safety and consumer protection laws. We need to go back to the idea of working together, as a country, and counteract this "ideal" of individualism and "every man for himself. The United States is most powerful when we act as such.

Submitted by Merci D. from WI in Health Nov. 16, 2014, 9:03 p.m.

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#317

717 votes

Require food to be tested for levels of residual pesticide, herbicide, heavy metals, and anything toxic to the human body. Require food labels to contain a list of all pesticides and herbicides used in production, and how much of these poisons remain in the food product.

Submitted by insight in Health Jan. 14, 2015, 7:32 p.m.

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#326

698 votes

Organic farmers need to have the the same rights as the Monsanto/corporate/big agriculture/ backing- and end the Monsanto poison in our lives!!!

Submitted by Heidi S. from OH in Health Jan. 8, 2015, 4:20 p.m.

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#336

674 votes

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