TO: WASHINGTON STATE BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION ON HEALTH CARE COSTS AND ACCESS
FROM: HEALTH CARE FOR ALL - WASHINGTON
RE: A PROBLEM AND VISION STATEMENT, 06/15/2006
Problem: What Washington’s health care system looks like now:
While opportunities and resources abound in the state of Washington to address and resolve the well-documented problems of health care costs and access in the state and nation, we still have:
• The number 1 priority problem -- our dysfunctional health care financing model. It affects all other health care issues for individuals, businesses, and governments. It prevents Washingtonians from using our many resources and our many opportunities to resolve all other health care problems. We cannot afford to fail in solving this problem, said Gov. Gregoire to the Commission on 06/06/2006. We agree that individuals, businesses, and governments cannot financially afford this problem and cannot, as a matter of responsible public policy, fail to solve it!
• 1.6 million Washington residents under 65 were without health coverage for 6 months or more in 2002-2003 (and many others underinsured);
• Half of our residents who fear they will lose the health coverage they now have, fear that coverage will become unaffordable, fear that the uncovered health costs will bankrupt them if they get sick, fear getting sick during an uninsured period, fear getting a diagnosis that will make them uninsurable, and fear or avoid changing jobs because they would lose health coverage;
• Lack of health coverage that interferes with access to preventive care, timely acute care, necessary prescriptions, continuity of primary care, and effective, humane management of chronic medical disease;
• Spent about $6,000 per year on health care for every person in the state and the nation--more than twice as much as any other industrialized country! Yet more than 15% of the population have no health coverage at all. We spend plenty, but don't get our money's worth!
• Used multiple third party payers for health coverage, which adds 30+% in administrative costs that do not go to health care, which adds multiple bureaucratic hurdles for patients, providers, employers, and government agencies, and which interferes with statewide, systematic coordination of health resources and programs; no other industrialized country chooses such a wasteful "non-system"; and, worst of all, health insurance costs are escalating much faster than the rate of inflation--costs that are unaffordable and unsustainable for individuals, businesses and employers, and for governments;
• Quality of care for Washington State citizens, and all Americans, that compares unfavorably with the rest of the industrialized world in multiple studies of health outcomes. The claim that, "We have the best health care in the world", is an ideological myth at best and a cruel deception at worst.
Vision: In five years, Washington’s health care system will:
• Declare that high-quality health care is a right of all people and that it should be covered publicly and delivered privately.
• Advocate for passage of US S. 2772, The Health Partnership Act, and seek grant(s) to support pilot state program(s) based on the 1990s Washington Health Care Commission reports, the California Health Options Project, and other seminal studies, including A Legislative Plan for Universal Health Coverage: The Washington Health Security Trust Proposal at: healthcareforallwa.org/HealthSecurityTrustProposal/tabid/56/Default.aspx .
• Based on these studies, develop feasible, affordable, and sustainable legislative proposals to create a statewide system of universal health care coverage, and
• Use funds and resources from the Health Partnership act, if it is enacted, for pilot projects that reassert Washington's early leadership and expertise in reforming our dysfunctional health care system.
• Encourage system developers to use data from a statewide universal health coverage system to develop a high tech infrastructure that supports quality and access improvements more efficiently in health care delivery (eg. standardized electronic medical records, uniform electronic claims forms, accessible health data bases, etc.).
How do we begin in the 2007 legislative session to achieve this 5 year vision?
• The Blue Ribbon Commission should introduce a sense of the Legislature measure that health care is a right for all Washington residents;
• The Commission should propose a contract with a respected health care consulting group to develop mature legislative proposals for universal health care coverage (such as the Lewin Group did in the CHOP in CA) and to carry out the many other proposals the Commission will have developed by 12/31/2006;
• The Commission should propose a memorial to Congress supporting S. 2772, The Health Partnership Act, and asserting that Washington is willing, able, and ready to take a leadership role in developing innovative improvements in the nation's failing health care system.
Health Care for All--Washington has many other suggestions that we hope will help create health care infrastructure that supports all health care users in the state. Dr. Sarah Weinberg and I look forward to presenting our ideas constructively in future Commission meetings.
Robert A. Fithian, M.D.
FROM: HEALTH CARE FOR ALL - WASHINGTON
RE: A PROBLEM AND VISION STATEMENT, 06/15/2006
Problem: What Washington’s health care system looks like now:
While opportunities and resources abound in the state of Washington to address and resolve the well-documented problems of health care costs and access in the state and nation, we still have:
• The number 1 priority problem -- our dysfunctional health care financing model. It affects all other health care issues for individuals, businesses, and governments. It prevents Washingtonians from using our many resources and our many opportunities to resolve all other health care problems. We cannot afford to fail in solving this problem, said Gov. Gregoire to the Commission on 06/06/2006. We agree that individuals, businesses, and governments cannot financially afford this problem and cannot, as a matter of responsible public policy, fail to solve it!
• 1.6 million Washington residents under 65 were without health coverage for 6 months or more in 2002-2003 (and many others underinsured);
• Half of our residents who fear they will lose the health coverage they now have, fear that coverage will become unaffordable, fear that the uncovered health costs will bankrupt them if they get sick, fear getting sick during an uninsured period, fear getting a diagnosis that will make them uninsurable, and fear or avoid changing jobs because they would lose health coverage;
• Lack of health coverage that interferes with access to preventive care, timely acute care, necessary prescriptions, continuity of primary care, and effective, humane management of chronic medical disease;
• Spent about $6,000 per year on health care for every person in the state and the nation--more than twice as much as any other industrialized country! Yet more than 15% of the population have no health coverage at all. We spend plenty, but don't get our money's worth!
• Used multiple third party payers for health coverage, which adds 30+% in administrative costs that do not go to health care, which adds multiple bureaucratic hurdles for patients, providers, employers, and government agencies, and which interferes with statewide, systematic coordination of health resources and programs; no other industrialized country chooses such a wasteful "non-system"; and, worst of all, health insurance costs are escalating much faster than the rate of inflation--costs that are unaffordable and unsustainable for individuals, businesses and employers, and for governments;
• Quality of care for Washington State citizens, and all Americans, that compares unfavorably with the rest of the industrialized world in multiple studies of health outcomes. The claim that, "We have the best health care in the world", is an ideological myth at best and a cruel deception at worst.
Vision: In five years, Washington’s health care system will:
• Declare that high-quality health care is a right of all people and that it should be covered publicly and delivered privately.
• Advocate for passage of US S. 2772, The Health Partnership Act, and seek grant(s) to support pilot state program(s) based on the 1990s Washington Health Care Commission reports, the California Health Options Project, and other seminal studies, including A Legislative Plan for Universal Health Coverage: The Washington Health Security Trust Proposal at: healthcareforallwa.org/HealthSecurityTrustProposal/tabid/56/Default.aspx .
• Based on these studies, develop feasible, affordable, and sustainable legislative proposals to create a statewide system of universal health care coverage, and
• Use funds and resources from the Health Partnership act, if it is enacted, for pilot projects that reassert Washington's early leadership and expertise in reforming our dysfunctional health care system.
• Encourage system developers to use data from a statewide universal health coverage system to develop a high tech infrastructure that supports quality and access improvements more efficiently in health care delivery (eg. standardized electronic medical records, uniform electronic claims forms, accessible health data bases, etc.).
How do we begin in the 2007 legislative session to achieve this 5 year vision?
• The Blue Ribbon Commission should introduce a sense of the Legislature measure that health care is a right for all Washington residents;
• The Commission should propose a contract with a respected health care consulting group to develop mature legislative proposals for universal health care coverage (such as the Lewin Group did in the CHOP in CA) and to carry out the many other proposals the Commission will have developed by 12/31/2006;
• The Commission should propose a memorial to Congress supporting S. 2772, The Health Partnership Act, and asserting that Washington is willing, able, and ready to take a leadership role in developing innovative improvements in the nation's failing health care system.
Health Care for All--Washington has many other suggestions that we hope will help create health care infrastructure that supports all health care users in the state. Dr. Sarah Weinberg and I look forward to presenting our ideas constructively in future Commission meetings.
Robert A. Fithian, M.D.