In July 2004, the National Coalition on Health Care, a nonpartisan alliance of organizations working for the achievement of comprehensive health care reform, released a report called Building a Better Health Care System: Specifications for Reform. In May 2005, the Coalition presented economic projections for implementing any one of the four system-wide reform scenarios outlined in the 2004 report, which include: 1) an employer mandate, supplemented with an individual mandate as necessary; 2) expansion of existing public health insurance programs; 3) creation of a new targeted public program (such as one modeled on the health benefit plan available to federal employees); and 4) a universal publicly financed program. The Coalition does not endorse one scenario over another.
Kenneth Thorpe, Ph.D., of Emory University, provided the analyses of these scenarios that reflect savings beginning soon after reforms would be implemented and would exceed $125 billion annually by the 10th year of implementation.
The five principles that are the basis of the comprehensive health care reform proposed by the Coalition include:
- Health care coverage for all;
- Cost management;
- Improvement of health care quality and safety;
- Equitable financing; and
- Simplified administration.
Building a Better Health Care System: Specifications for Reform and Dr. Thorpe’s analysis of the four scenarios are available on the Coalition’s Web site.
