Health Progress and Policy

Health Reform FAQ

1. Why is systemic health reform needed?
2. Does the public support health care reform?
3. Isn’t covering all kids real reform?
4. Should the system be completely overhauled?
5. Won’t people lose their current coverage?
6. Why not address health costs first?
7. Are rising costs hurting business?
8. What about personal responsibility?

1. Why is real, systemic health reform needed in this country? Isn’t the cure potentially worse than the disease?

• There is a health care crisis. Middle-class and working families are hurting. Health care costs are skyrocketing while benefits are being cut. Access to quality care is being eroded.
• The problems in the health system are urgent. They hurt patients, communities and the economy. Health costs affect our budget deficit and make Medicare’s problems worse. We must take on this crisis as our top priority, since it affects so many others.
• Real improvements are needed. Tinkering around the edges is not enough. And allowing the White House and Congress to continue to ignore this crisis is not an option.
• This nation has risen to such challenges before. We can – and will – craft a solution to provide affordable health coverage for all Americans.

2. Does the public really support health care reform? In the past, people supported health reform until they saw the details. What is different now?

• Americans have a long tradition of supporting affordable coverage for all. Past efforts have failed, but not due to a lack of public support.
• The extent of the crisis is what’s different today. Health care is viewed as the top national and personal economic threat.
  
  
  • Almost 47 million individuals lack health insurance in this country, where four out of five uninsured Americans live in working families.
  • Since 2000 alone, health insurance premiums have grown by 87 percent while wages have grown by only 20 percent and inflation by only 18 percent. This increase is nearly 6 times that of inflation.
  • Nearly half of all small businesses no longer provide health coverage for their employees.
  • American businesses are having more trouble competing globally while shouldering the burden of America’s broken health care system.
• Americans understand: it’s just wrong for anyone who works hard, pays taxes and plays by the rules to go without decent health care or to be driven into economic hardship because of health costs.

3. Isn’t covering all kids real reform?

• Providing decent, affordable coverage to all children is both good policy and good politics. It is the natural endpoint to the efforts begun in the 1980s and 1990s to give families increased health coverage options for their children.
• However, it is not enough. Overall, more children are insured than at the beginning of this decade. But, the number of uninsured Americans has increased by almost seven million adults since 2000. People approaching retirement are increasingly losing job-based coverage; young adults are less likely to be offered it at work; and sick adults have fewer options as Medicaid is cut back.
• Now is the time to provide affordable coverage to all Americans.

4. Should the system be completely overhauled or should we build on the existing, broken system?

• Our current insurance options, while far from perfect, work for over 80 percent of Americans. We should improve them, not replace them.
• Any plan that effectively insures all Americans and brings costs under control is real reform.
• Four bedrock principles must be addressed in real reform. It should:
  
  
  • Provide affordable coverage for all Americans
  • Maintain choice of doctors and plans
  • Reduce health care costs
  • Make preventing disease a national priority
• Congress must be forced to act on this critical problem, based on these principles. Once Congress engages, then details from a number of good plans can be used to develop a coalition and ultimately legislation.
• Progressives aim to promote practical, value-based solutions to major problems, not to develop ideal but infeasible plans that cannot be enacted in the real world.

5. Won’t people lose the coverage they have today?

• A core principle of real reform is to keep in place the choices people have today, while working to expand the choice of doctors and plans for everyone. The policies that created the employer system should be maintained and the system strengthened.
• Medicare would remain a critical part of any reformed system.

6. Why not address health costs first? Can we afford to add more people to this expensive system?

• No doubt, health costs are a critical issue, and must be a priority.
• A reformed health system must run as efficiently as possible. Including health information technology will squeeze some of the excess cost out of the system
• Also, solving the uninsured problem is part of addressing the cost problem. We must end the cost shifting and unnecessary use of emergency rooms that result from our gap-ridden system.

7. Are rising health care costs hurting business?

• American businesses are forced to choose between providing health benefits or jobs. The health care system in our country is broken, and needs real reform.
• Nearly half of small businesses no longer provide health insurance, creating a “race to the bottom” for workers’ benefits.
• The real answer is not incremental reform but real reform that provides small businesses with the same options as large businesses, addresses the cost problems, and makes coverage affordable for all workers.

8. What about personal responsibility? Should everyone pay into the system? Should individuals play a larger role in their own health maintenance?

• In a system where everyone benefits from health care coverage, everyone should help pay for it and share responsibility for health care costs.
• A greater emphasis on regular medical check-ups and preventive care would decrease health care costs for everyone. And with health care coverage, individuals are better able to pursue exercise, healthy diets and lifestyles and timely use of preventive services. A focus on wellness, not sickness, is essential for a 21st century health system.

Updated: October 20, 2006