Universal Health Care

[ChristopherHall]

Here is the policy plan proposed by leading Democrats. Please give me your opinions.

AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE
No factor does more to hold back America’s economic growth and keep
American workers from earning as much as they deserve than the soaring
cost of health care. The United States already spends twice as much on
health care as our nearest competitor, a terrible burden to carry in the global economy.
And we are not getting what we pay for, since our health outcomes and longevity
are no better than many countries that spend half as much. Employers and employees
alike bear the brunt of double-digit premium inflation. If we cannot hold down
the cost of health care, we will never be able to restore rising paychecks—a centerpiece
of the American Dream—or achieve our goal of universal, affordable care.
We must do much more to stop the premium spiral, from improving the way
we care for people with chronic illness, to modernizing the way health care does
business, to helping small businesses obtain more affordable coverage for their
employees. American businesses and American workers deserve real, immediate
steps to reduce their health care tab:

-Harnessing the Power of Health Information Technology. While the
health care sector has taken advantage of the latest medical breakthroughs,
it has failed to keep up with the Information Age. Its reliance
on paper records makes it inefficient, slow, and more costly than necessary.
We can transform the health care system by doing away with 20th
century bureaucracy and harnessing the power of 21st century information
technology instead.
It is time to pass bipartisan legislation to develop a secure, interoperable
health information infrastructure that makes patient privacy paramount.
We can reduce redundancies and waste and make our system safer and
more accountable, while empowering patients to become partners in managing
their care. Under a 21st century health care system, doctors and
patients will have real-time access to patients’ medical records, test results,
and the latest clinical guidance. Each year, it is estimated that almost
100,000 people die of preventable medical errors. A fully interoperable
health technology infrastructure will pay dividends in research and performance,
saving money and saving lives—and we can reinvest those savings
so our system reaches more people with better quality care.

-Small Employers Health Benefits Plan. Small businesses, which create most
of the new jobs in America, face the highest costs when they try to provide
health care. Because their workforce is small, if one of their employees
becomes ill, they feel it in next year’s premium increases. They do not have
the negotiating power they need to get more affordable health care.
Small businesses need access to stable, affordable health insurance so they
do not have to worry whether they can provide coverage from year to year.
We should allow small businesses to pool their workforces—much like large
businesses—so they have the power to obtain cheaper health insurance for
themselves and their employees.
It is time to give small business employees access to the same kind of health
care as members of Congress. By pooling small businesses across America into
one risk and purchasing pool, this plan will allow employers to reap the benefits
of group purchasing power and streamlined administrative costs, as well
as access to more plan choices. Instead of haggling with insurance companies
every year, small businesses should be able to get back to what they do best—
running their business.

-Universal Children’s Health Care. As we save money by reining in the cost of
health care, we will be able to afford the next big step toward universal coverage:
making sure every child in America has health insurance. First, we must reauthorize
and increase funds for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program so
that all eligible children are covered. This program has made tremendous strides
in solving the problem of the uninsured by covering nearly 5 million children.
But there are still 9 million children in this country who remain uninsured.
We should take a step further and ensure that all children have health
insurance. Health insurance for children should be a shared responsibility:
parents should make sure their children are covered and government should
provide adequate subsidies to make coverage affordable for lower-income
families. We should encourage employers to provide dependent coverage and
reward and help businesses that do the right thing. No child should be without
quality, affordable health insurance, and America has a responsibility to
make sure their parents can afford it.

-Giving Americans the Tools They Need to Make Healthy Choices. Good
health includes not only good health coverage but also making healthy choices.
This starts early in life. We need to make sure that our schools serve
healthy meals, that kids learn the value of physical exercise, and that we do
everything we can to keep young people from smoking.
More than 64 percent of adults and 15 percent of children and adolescents
are overweight or obese. We should train health care professionals to prevent,
diagnose, and treat obesity, overweight conditions, and eating disorders; provide
the resources for community-based programs that promote healthy eating
behaviors, improve nutrition, and increase physical activity; and close the
loophole on the sale of junk food in schools.
By giving Americans the tools they need to make healthier choices, we can
cut down on the rates of diseases like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension—
all of which put a financial strain on the health care system. But even those
people who live the healthiest lifestyles still get sick. We can help them
improve their quality of life and save money by promoting ways to find cures
and better manage chronic illnesses.

-Making a National Commitment to Finding Cures. Diseases like cancer,
AIDS, and Alzheimer’s exact a tremendous toll on families and drive up
medical spending. By focusing our resources and attention on finding cures now,
we can save lives and reduce healthcare spending over the long run. We
should create a National Center for Cures that targets and coordinates our
research dollars, encouraging better communication within the National
Institutes of Health and between the NIH and the private sector. We also
need a new federal policy on stem cells that encourages, rather than stymies,
life-saving research.

-Strengthening Medicare for the Long Term. Strengthening the Medicare
Trust Fund is essential to Americans’ long-term health and the nation’s longterm
fiscal stability. Over the past five years, the Medicare Trust Fund’s longterm
solvency has shrunk by 12 years. Prescription drugs are vital to preventing
and treating illness and helping to avoid more costly medical problems.
But the greater their role in our health care system, the more important their
affordability will become for seniors and the Medicare system. That is why
there is broad support in Congress to allow the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services to negotiate lower prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.