There may be a new war in George Bush's re-election campaign. Not another war overseas, not a war on drugs, or crime. The next war George Bush might be fighting is a war on health care. A new health care system could be a very big issue in politics during the election.

One reason it is an issue is cost. Prices are going up for individuals and government. Another reason is care. Doctors run extra tests to protect themselves from malpractice. The third reason is fraud. Insurance companies and the government are being ripped off.

Americans spend $23,000 a day on health care. Total health expenditures have risen an estimated 193 percent since 1980, while the Consumer Price Index has only risen 63 percent in the same time. The United States spends 12.3% of its gross national product on health care.

The reason these figures are so high is because costs of medical procedures have risen. Costs have risen so high that about one out of nine employed families, 37 million people, have no health insurance.

Medicaid is supposed to insure people who are "medically indigent," or cannot afford care. Unfortunately, Medicaid has many problems. It was started in 1965 as a part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. The Great Society was a plan to help the poor. It is the fastest-growing spending program in the United States. It will spend $158 billion in state and federal money in 1991. The states have put up 68 percent of this money. So, since each state sets up its own require- ments, many states with financial problems are raising these requirements. The result of this is that many people, about 31 million, are unable to afford their own care but make too much to qualify for government aid.

Medicaid spends so much money but still cannot help everyone because of waste. Sometimes a rule may require hospital care care when outpatient care will do. Fraud is also big because of poor management. Medicaid is an easy target for thieves. A reason not everyone is treated is because of all the paperwork and bureaucracy involved for doctors, and the payback for them is low.

Another huge cost to the American people and government is Medicare. Medicare is designed to help the elderly. Medicare's budget has risen drastically, from $5 billion when it was started, to $32.1 billion in 1980, to $110 billion today. Most of the funding for the program comes from taxes of the workers, and they are having trouble taking care of themselves. The reason for the increase is partly because there are more elderly people and they are living longer. Another problem is that it gives the same amount of coverage to the rich as it does the poor.

What is a solution to the high cost of today's health care? One that is popular with Democrats, and is even becoming an idea for Republicans, is some sort of national health care plan to help all of the people. A way to fund this would be to shift the cost to the wealthy. The Congress could do this by eliminating the income cap on Social Security. Although this would raise taxes for the rich, it would shift the burden off the low-income workers. If this plan was put into use, Congress could budget the Medicaid money to the new plan.

The new plan would need to have better regulations and would have to have deductibles and co-payments that rose as personal income rose. In theory, this would give people benefits that were equal, according to the amount they could afford themselves.

Another problem with the health care industry is overcare. The overcare usually comes from fear of malpractice suits. To protect themselves, doctors run many unnecessary tests and even some questionable surgeries. For example, a doctor may perform a bypass surgery, even though he is not sure it will help the patient.

The way to top this problem is to make a jury realize in malpractice suits that doctors are only human and that they can only do so much. Also, make it less appealing to lawyers by putting caps on moral awards, such as pain and anguish that do not have a real monetary value.

A problem that puts a lot of pressure on the insurance companies is fraud. Doctors use insurance numbers and charge patients for treatments they did not receive. Others charge outrageous fees by itemizing surgeries. Doctors can go to seminars to learn how to do this most effectively.Some hospitals just charge really high fees because they think insurance companies will not find out.

Another form of fraud is "conflict of interest." Many times a group of doctors will pool their money to buy their own high-tech equipment at testing centers. Since they get part of the money, they want to send as many people as possible to their place. To do this they call for many unneeded tests.

Another example of conflict of interest is between doctors and hospitals. Hospitals buy a doctor's practice and then pay the doctor according to how many patients he sends to them for care.

The best way to deal with fraud is better enforcement. Better records should be kept so when offenders try to repeat, as they often do, they could be caught.

To deal with conflicts of interest, doctors should have to tell their patients what their relationship, if any, is with the testing centers and hospitals they are sending them to. The more obvious conflicts should be outlawed. If this happens, more doctors might send patients to less expensive outpatient clinics when possible, instead of to hospitals.

The United States has one of the best health care systems in the world. We have the ability to cure or prevent almost every illness known. If changes can be made so the care is more readily available and less expensive, by cutting down on fraud and mismanagement, the United States will have the best system anywhere.

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