Health care represents one-sixth of our economy. So rest assured: those who profit from our current broken system will employ their enormous resources to fight measures that reduce their profits or increase their costs. This includes the insurance industry, pharmaceutical companies and businesses that fail to provide coverage to their workers.
Therefore, it’s important to recognize the difference between so-called “health care reform plans” that are fig leafs meant to sound appealing but are really meant to protect the status quo. Real health care reform would include the following.
- Keeping the coverage you have, if you like it. Real health care reform means real options. If you have health care you like, you should be able to keep it. If you lack health insurance or are unhappy with your coverage, you should have options.
- The choice of a quality, affordable public health insurance plan. Public health insurance plans are more cost efficient than private coverage. By including a public health insurance option, we will create a competitive environment that will force private coverage to become more affordable. In addition, a public health insurance option will provide peace of mind to families, ensuring that there will always be high quality, affordable coverage no matter what happens to their private coverage.
- Employers must pay their fair share. Our health care system is based on employer-provided coverage, but some employers are shirking their responsibility. When some employers provide insurance while others do not, it creates an uneven playing field that puts responsible employers at a competitive disadvantage and drives up costs for everyone.
In fact, employers who fail to provide health insurance for their employees drive up the cost of coverage for the rest of us. The cost of care for the uninsured increases the premium paid by you and your employer by $1,100 per year. Real health care reform means that employers must either provide comprehensive coverage to their workers or pay into a fund that provides coverage, with subsidies for small businesses.
- Government has a positive role to play. Some argue that a “hands off” approach to the insurance companies and the health care system is the way to go. But that is the exact approach that has led to so many of our problems today. If we are to fix health care and our economy, the government must be an advocate for people in our health care system. We should not be left at the mercy of insurance companies that turn people away because they have a pre-existing condition. Insurance companies should not be allowed to wrongly deny or delay care.
- No taxation of health benefits. President Obama campaigned against taxing health care benefits. That’s because more than 160 million people get their coverage through the workplace, as either a worker, a dependent or a retiree. Taxing health care benefits would not only make coverage more expensive for families, it would destabilize our current system and drive many employers to stop providing health benefits for their workers.
- Guaranteed, quality care for all. 46 million people lack health care coverage — and the number is growing as more and more lose their jobs. Everyone should have high quality coverage, with comprehensive benefits — and it must be affordable for families, retirees, small businesses and all other employers.
