Is Meaningful Health Care Reform Achievable?

Principle 5: Rebalance America’s Health Care Justice System To Protect Patients Without Compromising The Health System’s Viability.

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:00:44 -0400

Problem In its current form, America’s health care justice system is capricious, unreliable, and onerously expensive. It does not discourage error or encourage error proofing. Health care providers unilaterally loathe it and seek change, while the health care bar generally opposes reforms. At the same time, serious national health care quality standardization efforts still have not taken root and, even if they had, they have not been incorporated into health care justice processes. That said, me

End Notes

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:00:45 -0400

The White House National Economic Council, Reforming Health Care For The 21 st Century, February 2006. Office of the Governor of California, “Gov. Schwarzenegger Tackles California's Broken Health Care System, Proposes Comprehensive Plan to Help All Californians,” January 8, 2007. Office of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,“Governor Rendell Unveils Historic “Prescription for Pennsylvania” to Provide Access to Affordable, Quality Health Care For All Pennsylvanians,” January 17, 200

Principle 4: Promote “Meaningful” Consumerism

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:00:21 -0400

Provide Information For Better Health Care Decision Making Problem Information is not yet generally available to allow health care purchasers at all levels to make informed decisions. That is, without information health care cannot have a functional market. Actions Publicly report pricing and performance information on health care vendors in ways that are meaningful to purchasers and fair to those being evaluated. Publicly report pricing/performance/value information for informed purchasin

Principle 3: Retool Health Care’s Management Infrastructure

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:00:09 -0400

Problem America’s health care system currently lacks a cohesive management infrastructure for enterprise-wide performance tracking and management. Action Establish the functions described below under the auspices of a new or expanded national agency. Transparency/Accountability Problem Our current inability to identify problems and opportunities throughout health care has resulted in waste, inappropriateness and sub-optimal quality. Broad awareness that excesses are difficult to identify has

Principle 2: Modernize Publicly-Financed Health Care Programs

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:00:34 -0400

Revamp Eligibility Criteria Problem As former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber MD has persuasively argued, public programs like Medicare and Medicaid define eligibility categorically (e.g., age, gender, parental status) instead of in terms of financial need, creating inequities and squandering precious public resources. Action Establish a commission to review and recommend reforms to public health care eligibility criteria so they promote health and equitably reduce the nation's burden of acute

Principle 1: Establish Universal Coverage For Basic Health Services

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:00:12 -0400

Problem Social justice issues notwithstanding, the rapidly rising tide of uninsureds and underinsureds threatens to overwhelm and financially destabilize health care safety net professionals and institutions, and to precipitate significant turmoil throughout health care, the nation’s largest economic sector. Actions A. Establish Funding For Basic Care Services. Establish universal coverage for “basic” health services – basic must be defined – funded through taxes, for everyone in America. To d

Perspective On The Health Care Crisis

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:00:56 -0400

It is not news that American health care is in crisis. Between 2000 and 2006, health insurance premiums grew almost five times as fast as the rest of the economy, almost four times workers earnings and more than twice the growth of business net income. That rising cost is pricing individual, corporate and governmental purchasers out of coverage, with impacts for mainstream and low-income Americans. Enrollment in private sector health coverage represents about half (56% in 2004) of all health ca

Overview

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:00:43 -0400

The intensifying health care crisis has recently elicited reform proposals from the White House, several states, Congress, Presidential candidates and the movies. While each abstractly acknowledges the need for cost control, most are focused on providing basic or comprehensive universal coverage. Aside from making sure that everyone in America has insurance, few proposals describe what actions will be required to re-establish stability and sustainability in our health care system. It seems clea

Getting To Meaningful Health Care Reform

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:00:57 -0400

About a year ago, the Executive Director of a national business association called with a straightforward request. Develop a document that could make a logical structural argument for health care reform, then list out the specific problems in the system and the action items that would be required to re-establish stability and sustainability to American health care. This section resulted from that effort. It is still a work in progress, at least in terms of the justifications. But it tries to s