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December 29, 2006
Senator Ron Wyden's health care idea
Two weeks ago, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) proposed an innovative solution to America's 46 million uninsured and counting health care crisis (from his website Stand Tall for America): Start by making care more affordable. That means eliminating inefficiency, beginning with when a person signs up for coverage. Get citizens good quality outpatient health care so they don't go to hospital emergency rooms. Reward prevention-- health care, not sick care. Beef up the quality of care by reducing medical errors in our hospitals. The Healthy Americans Act provides a guarantee: health coverage for every American that is at least as good as Members of Congress receive and can never be taken away.
Here's more on the problem and solution from an LA Times column -- Going Universal -- from a few days ago by The American Prospect's Ezra Klein (here's his blog):
Surrounded by an unlikely array of union leaders and corporate chief executives, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has unveiled an inventive, comprehensive reform plan that would end the employer system forever. What businesses pay in employee premiums would be redirected to employee raises; insurers would offer their plans through state associations that would no longer allow price discrimination for reasons of health or job status; and everyone would have to buy in. Universal coverage would be achieved in under two years.
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at December 29, 2006 04:58 PM
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