Our Core Principles
We believe the healthcare crisis warrants decisive
action to produce meaningful state and federal policy
reforms by 2009. Working together, business government and consumers
can forge solutions to build a stronger, healthier
America. CAHR advocates market-based reforms to fix our nation's broken healthcare system based on the following five
core principles.
Market-Based Healthcare System:
Market forces are largely absent in today's healthcare system. As a
result, healthcare costs
are spiraling out of control rising from 7.2 percent of GDP in 1970 to
16.2 percent in 2005. This figure is expected to grow to 22 percent by
2015, which will negatively impact the competitiveness
of U.S. businesses in the global marketplace and be
detrimental to American workers. Policymakers should
remove current obstacles and introduce more market
mechanisms to fix the healthcare delivery system. Markets
require transparent information on cost and quality
to work efficiently; today's healthcare system fails this requirement.
Healthcare
reform policies must provide consumers full access
to simple, reliable and transparent information about
costs and quality of care, underpinned by cost-effective technology
such as transportable digital
medical records and e-prescriptions. These reforms will create a
vibrant
healthcare system that drives better health outcomes
and lower costs.
Universal Coverage with Individual Responsibility: Public policy has long mandated that care be provided
when needed. We believe this policy should be balanced
with a requirement that individuals carry health insurance
regardless of their employment status. All Americans
should have access to affordable quality healthcare
services, with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions. The market should drive these
policies with government, businesses and individuals
sharing responsibility to ensure affordable healthcare
coverage is achieved.
Financial Assistance for Low-Income Individuals: The market will work better if low-income participants are provided financial assistance
to obtain coverage than if healthcare were provided
as a free good. Providing financial assistance will
enable all Americans to obtain the routine healthcare
they need through traditional venues - physicians and clinics - instead of emergency rooms.
Healthier Behavior and Incentives: Since 50 to 70 percent of total healthcare costs are behavior driven,
healthcare plans must be designed to drive healthy
behavior - starting with prevention and wellness and incorporating
full care management programs for those with chronic
and acute conditions. Individuals and families should
have strong personal financial incentives for adopting
healthy behaviors.
Equal Tax Treatment: Individuals must be able to purchase healthcare in
the same tax-advantaged way as business does today. Today healthcare
premiums are tax deductible to business, but not to
individuals - a policy that resulted from World War II-era wage and price controls and is now out of date.
Policymakers should level the playing field and make
individual healthcare expenses tax deductible - thereby enabling individual responsibility.
|