Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America
Download the complete book of ideas (PDF, 6MB)
As a new presidential term and a new Congress begin, the Center for American Progress has launched the Progressive Priorities Project to provide policymakers and the public with a positive vision for progressive policymaking supported by a series of new and bold policy ideas in priority areas identified by American Progress. Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America is the tenth of more than a dozen papers in the series that American Progress will issue over the course of the coming weeks. In addition to providing broad policy recommendations, each of the papers in the series proposes specific steps that policymakers can take to achieve the broader policy goals. All of the papers in the series will be compiled and published as a book early this year.
Progressive Prescriptions for a Healthy America
Executive Summary
America’s health system is in crisis, leaving out too many and costing too much. Forty-five million Americans lack health insurance today. Millions more are struggling to pay premiums that are growing five times faster than wages, even as their benefits shrink. While some Americans have access to the most sophisticated medical care in the world, others are left to overcrowded emergency rooms, underfunded clinics, or no health care at all—all because they lack the insurance it takes to pay for the care they need. These injustices are inconsistent with Americans’ respect for human dignity and commitment to opportunity for all. Unlocking our health care system’s potential for everyone in America is the great moral challenge of our time.
To meet this challenge, the Center for American Progress proposes a practical, fair, and responsible plan to improve our health, not just our health care system. Rather than dismantling our current system and starting from scratch, the Center’s plan builds on the system’s strengths while responding to its serious shortcomings. By embracing this approach, the Center’s plan guarantees affordable, valuable health coverage for everyone, including those who have coverage today. Our reforms ensure that cost is not a barrier to coverage by providing income-related financial assistance. Additionally, by investing in key areas to improve health care quality and outcomes while reducing costs, Americans will get better value for their health care dollars. In return for these advancements, all individuals will be expected to contribute toward the health care system they will inevitably use. Accordingly, we propose to help pay for the investments necessary to improve access, affordability, and quality through a small value-added tax, the revenues from which will be dedicated exclusively to health system improvements. The Center’s plan requires tough choices and shared sacrifice, but Americans do not shy away from the hard work necessary to ensure greater opportunity and security for all.