Quality Healthcare is a Human Right

We the undersigned believe that immediate and fundamental healthcare reform must be enacted in the United States.  Access to quality healthcare is a human right, and in the wealthiest country in the world, there is no excuse for persons being excluded from receiving affordable, high-quality, preventative and comprehensive healthcare.  The long-term financial and societal benefit of increased public health and wellbeing will outweigh any short-term costs of reform. 

We believe that American healthcare reform must cover four major points.

Health Care for All: Affordable high-quality comprehensive healthcare must be made available to all Americans, for which no person can be excluded or charged more for a preexisting condition.

Publicly Administered Option: The role of private insurance companies in the health care system must be diminished and a competitive, publicly administered option must be available to all Americans.

Reduce Costs: Cost reductions should be achieved by outcome-based wellness incentives for doctors, reducing paperwork and errors by electronic records, capping prescription drug costs, increased government funding to educate new healthcare providers, eliminating anticompetitive activity among insurers, and government regulations of malpractice insurers. 

Personal Bankruptcy Protection: All Americans should be protected from bankruptcy due to catastrophic illness.

More specifically, we believe that healthcare reform must include the following twelve components:

1. Affordable high-quality comprehensive healthcare must be made available to all Americans.

Such comprehensive basic healthcare includes:

• Must cover: 

o      Regular primary care

o      Easy access to specialists

o      Emergency procedures and emergency/urgent care visits

o      Necessary hospitalizations

o      Gynecological and prenatal care

o      Preventative and critical dental care

o      Necessary medical transport and in-home nursing, nursing home, and rehabilitation center care

o      Ample preventive care and wellness education programs

o      Mental health and substance abuse treatment, including individual and group therapy, hospitalizations, and outpatient psychiatric and substance abuse treatments

o      Prescription drugs and medical supplies, including prescribed birth control

o      Cosmetic and reconstructive surgery to correct disfugurement due to medical treatment, accident, or birth defects, as deemed necessary to provide a reasonable quality-of-life

• Cannot discriminate against nor charge more for any persons based on genetic propensities, pre-existing condition, or physical condition (e.g. weight or age)
• Premiums and out-of-pocket expenses (co-pays) must be determined on a sliding-scale based on ability to pay
• Choice of doctor and hospital
• Plans must be portable across geographic regions and employers so no person risks losing insurance by changing or losing a job or by relocating
• Must have a publicly administered option
• Individual care and treatment decisions must be made by the health care provider and patient, including reproductive and end-of-life treatment decisions
• Should include an increased use of Nurse Practitioners, midwives, and other alternative care options to reduce costs and improve quality of care

2. There must be the option to purchase additional insurance to cover additional and optional procedures or treatments.

3. The role of private insurance companies in the health care system must be diminished and a competitive, and publicly administered option must be provided for all Americans.

4. Reform should include outcome-based wellness incentives for doctors and insurance providers.

5. Health care providers should be burdened with a minimum of paperwork to keep their focus on patient health and treatment.  Measures must be implemented to reduce the administrative burden of healthcare providers and thus help control costs.

6. The plan must improve patient safety and quality of care, by implementation of proven patient safety measures and incentives for procedural improvements to reduce variability and medical errors in patient care. It must support the widespread use of health information technology %u2028and the development of data on the effectiveness of medical interventions to improve the quality of care delivered.

7. The government must cap maximum prices that can be charged for prescription drugs and medical supplies at an affordable level, and specify the portion of that price that is counted as profit verses cost-recovery.   Pharmaceutical and medical supply companies must make their accounting public and cannot spend any of their cost-recovery proceeds from drug sales on commercial advertising.

8. Generic drugs must have FDA enforcement of the same quality control and safety requirements as brand name drugs.

9.  All Americans should be protected from bankruptcy due to catastrophic illness

10.  The government must implement more programs to defray medical and nursing school costs such as loan forgiveness and grants for providers practicing in non-profit community clinics or serving other neglected populations.  Correspondingly, the government must establish means to increase the availability of medical and nursing school educations to address impending doctor and nurse shortages. 

11. Reform the insurance market to increase competition by eliminating anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.

12. There must be governmental regulation of malpractice insurers to control costs.

Thank you for giving serious consideration to our views as you craft fundamental healthcare reform policy to make America a truly healthy and equitable country.