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Tony Ondrusek is founder and publisher of Insurance & Financial Advisor and IFAwebnews.com.

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Newspapers across the nation report that “panicky” Democrats (including President Obama) are considering swallowing hard, avoiding compromise, and agreeing to pass the Senate version of health care reform in order to avoid the will of the American people.

At least, the will of the people of Massachusetts, whose distaste for the current health care reform versions mirrors that of most of America.

Democrats are worried that a Republican victory in Massachusetts to fill the seat formerly held by the deceased Sen. Ted Kennedy could pose a threat to passage of any health care reform. And they are correct. Polls over and over show that Americans don’t want this legislation, and even in Massachusetts, where a mere 11% of the population is registered Republican, voters are in revolt.

Even the Obama Administration admits, through its own agencies, that the Senate version of health care reform could prove disastrous for an already faltering U.S. economy, as I outlined in a previous blog.

But no matter, they are bound and determined to pass something, despite the ominous signs of voter unrest in Massachusetts, and what will likely be a major overhaul of party control in Congress in the elections later this year.

If, and this is one hopeful and unlikely”if,” Congress is not able to enact legislation, perhaps they can begin some meaningful discussion that would lead to responsible reform. The areas that I believe should be addressed to meet a legitimate need for reform include the following:

1. Get rid of the fraud and waste in Medicare/Medicaid (which will lower the costs of private/employer health insurance, since they subsidize the low payments the government plans make to health care providers)

2. Institute tort reform (if frivolous lawsuits were met with stiff fines, and if non-economic damages limits were in place, medmal insurance rates would drop dramatically, and so would physician rates, resulting in up to a 25% (TWENTY FIVE PERCENT!!) decrease in health insurance premiums)

3. Require the states drop mandates; in some states, there are more than 40 mandates (why should a 65-year-old woman have to pay for birth-control care, or a 25-year-old woman be forced to pay for male hair transplants, or a retired couple be forced to pay for hearing aids for their children, when none of these people will ever use the covered services?!)

4. Make health records more electronic and more portable

5. Allow employers to group themselves together to get group rates

6. Require those who use the ER for ordinary care to see doctors on a regular basis for preventive care, perhaps even in regional clinics in areas frequented by those who use ER’s as their “doctor’s office” (the president says that he will “require individuals to carry basic health insurance” …his exact words from his 2009 State of the Union address … so why not require those who abuse the ER to see a doctor in an office setting instead of the ER?)

7. Investigate the feasibility of purchasing plans across state lines.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but would be a good starting point for meaningful reform; reform that Americans can agree on, and which will make health insurance more accessible and affordable for all.

And if Scott Brown (R) does indeed defeat Martha Coakley (D), Democrats can still get health care reform legislation passed by maneuvering the system , according to the Christian Science Monitor. It would be messy, but at this stage, nothing that Congress could do would surprise me.