If our healthcare system worked better, and everyone had access to good medical care, we wouldn't have overcrowded and misused emergency rooms.  If access to medical care is a basic human right, the government should make sure to provide it, and not depend on volunteers.  It's like access to clean water.  If I was to find out one day I no longer have drinking water flowing through my pipes, I would complain to the county and expect that they fix the problem.  I wouldn't try to drill a well in my back yard.  One of the reason I pay tens of thousands of dollars each year to the government is so that it will provide me with clean water.  If the government doesn't provide some basic services and protect my rights, I can take care of myself and dig wells, but then what am I paying them for?
I will take full responsibility for my health, water supply, protection, energy needs, etc.  But then don't ask me to pay 30% of my salary to the government.  

You know what, you may have something there.  There is something empowering about having the patient enter in their own medical information.  If requires a certain active level of participation in their own care.  It would probably encourage the patient to take more responsibility for their care too.  But this needs to be done carefully, and their needs to be a solution for patients who are unable or unwilling to take on this responsibility.  As I'm sure you know, there are many people out there who take 20 pills every day, and they have no idea what the pills are and why they are taking them.  Assuming care of such patients can be very frustrating at best, but often also dangerous to the patient.  A national system may require that either the patient, or a caregiver, assume responsibility for the patient's medical record.  But somewhere, there still needs to be a balance between information entered by physicians, and information entered by the patient.

You have no idea how much a universal electronic system would save and how quickly it would pay for itself.  Also, there are numerous problems with patients entering their own information.  In general, the more sick and complex a person is, the less likely they are to accurately manage their medical information.  We don't need a universal electronic medical information system for the 35 year old with a broken ankle.  We need it for the 85 year old with dementia, diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, prostate cancer,  and glaucoma.  Also, the VA has in place an electronic record that is available in all VAs and works across the country.  We can just expand that system.  Also, most European countries have such a system in place that works well.  We don't have to re-invent the wheel.  Just take what we already have, or adopt what others already developed, and expand/improve it.

I recently completed 14 years of training after high school to become a specialized physician and just started my first job working for an academic institution. That said, I've worked in over a dozen hospitals in the East Coast, West Coast, and the South over the past 7 years. These are the issues as I see them:
1. Drugs and devices are being developed with no consideration for cost. In fact, there is an incentive for companies to develop very expensive drugs and devices. This habit will break the system. We need to put in place incentives for the manufacturers to develop drugs that can be easily and cheaply mass produced once the patent runs out.
2. We need to create incentives for physicians to be the kind of doctors we all want. Physicians need to be payed to DIAGNOSE, THINK, and TREAT, and not only to DO. Currently, if I inject someone's knee, I make $400. I could train anyone to inject a knee in 20 minutes. If I spend 45 minutes with a patient using all the skills I learned in 14 years of training to reach a brilliant diagnosis and cure them, I make only $200. The system encourages unnecessary procedures and quick-fixes, and discourages good management of chronic conditions.
3. While I fully support restrictions on expensive procedures and treatments, I would like to point out that the amount of time I end up spending on the phone (mostly being on "hold") and writing letters and filling out forms is ridiculous. Whatever system exists for prior authorizations and approvals needs to be efficient. Unless you want me wasting my time being on "hold" rather than seeing patients.
4. UNIVERSAL ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DATABASE. Such a system would same countless billions of dollars. Patients with chronic diseases often get unnecessary tests, wrong medications, and completely mismanaged just because their medical history and prior exams and not readily available. Not to mention hours wasted on the phone trying to track down old medical records. Give every person a card with a chip holding all their medical history. Have the card accessible only by a scanner that confirms the person's identity with a password and their fingerprint, and then allow only licensed physicians to keep these card readers. Make it a serious federal crime for anyone other than a licensed physician to possess one of these scanners.

I think we pay plenty of taxes, and we should demand our government put this tax money to work to benefit us. I don't endorse this approach of giving the government our money AND our time. Obama got it right when he said access to healthcare is a RIGHT not a PRIVILEGE. We can't have a good healthcare system if it depends on volunteers. If you want something done right, you have to pay for it.

I recently completed 14 years of training after high school to become a specialized physician and just started my first job working for an academic institution. That said, I've worked in over a dozen hospitals in the East Coast, West Coast, and the South over the past 7 years. These are the issues as I see them:
1. Drugs and devices are being developed with no consideration for cost. In fact, there is an incentive for companies to develop very expensive drugs and devices. This habit will break the system. We need to put in place incentives for the manufacturers to develop drugs that can be easily and cheaply mass produced once the patent runs out.
2. We need to create incentives for physicians to be the kind of doctors we all want. Physicians need to be payed to DIAGNOSE, THINK, and TREAT, and not only to DO. Currently, if I inject someone's knee, I make $400. I could train anyone to inject a knee in 20 minutes. If I spend 45 minutes with a patient using all the skills I learned in 14 years of training to reach a brilliant diagnosis and cure them, I make only $200. The system encourages unnecessary procedures and quick-fixes, and discourages good management of chronic conditions.
3. While I fully support restrictions on expensive procedures and treatments, I would like to point out that the amount of time I end up spending on the phone (mostly being on "hold") and writing letters and filling out forms is ridiculous. Whatever system exists for prior authorizations and approvals needs to be efficient. Unless you want me wasting my time being on "hold" rather than seeing patients.
4. UNIVERSAL ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DATABASE. Such a system would same countless billions of dollars. Patients with chronic diseases often get unnecessary tests, wrong medications, and completely mismanaged just because their medical history and prior exams and not readily available. Not to mention hours wasted on the phone trying to track down old medical records. Give every person a card with a chip holding all their medical history. Have the card accessible only by a scanner that confirms the person's identity with a password and their fingerprint, and then allow only licensed physicians to keep these card readers. Make it a serious federal crime for anyone other than a licensed physician to possess one of these scanners.

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Obama, if you want my help, I will gladly volunteer my time to help fix the system.