A Healthy Plan for America
Provide Guaranteed Health Insurance for All Americans
Today, 46 million Americans lack health insurance. Millions more are struggling to pay premiums that are growing five times faster than wages, while their benefits shrink. Some Americans have access to the most sophisticated medical care in the world, but others are left to overcrowded emergency rooms, under-funded clinics, or no health care at all—all because they lack the insurance it takes to pay for the care they need. It's just wrong for anyone who works hard and plays by the rules to go without decent health care or be driven into economic hardship by health care costs. Reforming our health care system to provide affordable health care to all Americans is the great moral challenge of our time.
To meet our nation’s health care needs, the Center for American Progress proposes a bold but practical approach to guaranteeing an American’s right to affordable, quality health coverage.
The Plan:
1. Give everyone the choice to select at least one of the following insurance options: employer-sponsored insurance; Medicaid; or private health coverage offered through a new group insurance pool, like the system used by federal employees and members of Congress.
• Health care costs for individuals kept in check by refundable tax credits structured to guarantee that health insurance premiums never exceed more than a small, fixed percent (e.g. 5 to 7.5 percent) of income.
• Expand and simplify Medicaid to protect the working poor and indigent adults who often “fall through the cracks” of today’s system.
• In return for guaranteed access to affordable coverage, establish universal enrollment or pay an income-related charge to support the care they will inevitably use. Medicaid would be the default payer for those who refuse to choose their own option.
2. Remove coverage for preventive services from the insurance system and coordinate through a new, community-based benefit emphasizing disease prevention and health promotion investments in effectiveness research and health information technology will make the whole system more efficient and cost-effective.
• The plan helps everyone take more personal responsibility for their health by strengthening preventive care and offering individuals and their providers the information required to make sound treatment decisions. New research would develop better information about what treatment options get the best results.
• The plan brings our health care system out of the information dark ages by promoting cutting-edge information technology to deliver better quality health care more efficiently.
3. Finance necessary investment through a new, broad-based funding source: a small value-added tax exclusively dedicated to health system improvement.
• This approach has advantages over increasing existing taxes because it encourages savings, is difficult to evade, and can generate significant revenue at a relatively low rate.
• Targeted exemptions would reduce the impact on low-income individuals and lower administrative costs.
For more information: Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America
The Experts: Jeanne Lambrew, Karen Davenport
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