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Thoughts on Reform

Posted by: Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA on May 05, 2009

Today, I had the privilege of speaking at the Senate Finance Committee's Roundtable on Coverage Issues in Health Reform, and I wanted to share some thoughts with you. For Americans, fundamentally reforming our nation's health care system is of utmost urgency. More people are going without health insurance, family budgets are tightening, and American businesses are unable to keep up with rising health care costs.  At the same time that the number of uninsured is rising, people who have insurance are struggling to afford rising premiums.

Families USA has two core goals for health care reform: 1) that everyone who currently has satisfactory health care coverage can keep that coverage, and 2) that those who do not currently have health care coverage can get it. The most effective way to achieve these goals and reform our health care system is to build on and improve what currently works in our system.

We recommend an approach that will expand coverage as part of health care reform that will especially help low income families: First, we want to build upon and strengthen Medicaid. Medicaid now covers approximately 60 million people who can't otherwise afford health insurance, but it has holes and it fails to protect many very vulnerable people. We want to fill those holes and makes sure that more families have access to care through Medicaid.

We also believe that middle class working families should receive subsidies to buy coverage in a regulated, reformed insurance market or "exchange." A public plan should be available to everyone in this exchange to help level the playing field.

Finally, we believe that working families should receive help with out-of-pocket health care costs, such as deductibles and copayments, which are keeping millions of Americans from getting care.

These three recommendations are critical to making health coverage affordable for those who today lack coverage or who are at risk of losing their health coverage.

So you might be asking - why Medicaid? Medicaid is specifically designed to serve low-income people and people with disabilities - people who cannot afford needed health care on their own. Medicaid guarantees comprehensive coverage to people with diverse health care needs. In addition, it limits how much people can be charged out-of-pocket for health care. Therefore, we think it is essential that the federal government step-up and strengthen the Medicaid program for everyone below a certain income.

Health care reform presents a tremendous opportunity to move forward and provide quality, affordable health coverage to everyone in our country-and to do so within the framework of our uniquely American system. Families USA believes that we can build on the best of what we have today.