NCHC’s call for comprehensive reform
National Coalition on Health Care
July 20, 2004
Building a Better Health Care System
Principle 1 – Health Care Coverage for All
Principle 2 – Cost Management
Principle 3 – Improvement of Health Care Quality and Safety
Principle 4 – Equitable Financing
Principle 5 – Simplified Administration
Conclusion
The members of the National Coalition on Health Care are determined to work
for comprehensive reform of the American health care system. We offer these
specifications for reform as an agenda – an urgent agenda – for action. We close with two observations.
First, we would emphasize again our conviction that reform must be systemic
and system-wide. The problems of our health care system – and the principles
that guided our development of specifications for reform – are so closely
interrelated that they must all be addressed at the same time. One-dimensional reform will not work.
Consider: Unless we improve the quality of care, we will not be able to manage costs or afford universal coverage. Unless we manage costs effectively, we will not be able to achieve equitable financing or cover all Americans. And unless we assure coverage for everybody, we will be unable to make the system less complex, establish a level playing field without cost-shifting, or create a truly competitive health care marketplace.
Second, the status quo – clearly, undeniably – is not working. It leaves tens of millions of Americans with no health insurance at all. It allows costs to skyrocket year after year, putting coverage out of reach for millions of Americans and compromising the vitality of our economy and its capacity to create and sustain jobs. And it jeopardizes the safety of patients because of widespread sub- standard care.
The status quo is not acceptable. It is time – it is past time – to change it. The readers of this report can have a tremendous impact on the prospects for reform and the shape of reform. We hope that you will work with us in this important effort.
Full report:
http://www.nchc.org/materials/studies/reform.pdf
Press release:
http://www.nchc.org/news/press_releases/2004_07_20.pdf
Webcast of the briefing:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1239.
Comment: On reading the full report it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that a single payer, publicly funded and publicly administered insurance program offers the best option, and possibly the only realistic option, for achieving all of the Coalition’s goals. However, in order not to lose support of several coalition members, the other familiar options were included for consideration in this proposal.
Although this report is quite weak on specifying the one precise model of reform that should be adopted, it is very strong in supporting no less than truly comprehensive reform now. The message is that it is time to abandon the failed policies of incremental tweaking. That is a real step forward. We should move on it.