The National Coalition on Health Care
Report of a New Alliance that is to bring together an unusual group.
(click here for a selected list of participants)

The Coalition brings together large and small businesses, labor unions, consumer groups, religious groups and primary care providers. Distinguished leaders from academia, business and government have also pledged their support of the Coalition’s efforts. Its Honorary Co-Chairs are former Presidents George Bush, Gerald R. Ford, and Jimmy Carter and the Co-Chairmen are former Governor Robert D. Ray (R-IA) and former Congressman Paul G.Rogers (D-FL).

Coalition Principles
Our health care system is changing rapidly, and not always for the better. Our nation faces three critical and interconnected problems:

1. there are serious concerns about the quality of health care;
2. costs continue to rise; and,
3. there is a large and increasing number of people without health insurance.

The National Coalition on Health Care’s diverse membership is united in support of the following principles as a framework for improving our nation’s health care:

• Securing health insurance for all
• Improved quality of care
• Cost containment
• Equitable financing and
• Simplified administration

Health insurance for all is needed to assure quality of care, to improve the health status of Americans, and to enable us to control costs and to simplify the system. It is both an essential social policy goal and a vitally important tool in accomplishing effective cost containment, access to needed care, equitable financing and improvement in quality.

As long as large numbers of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured, national health costs will remain unnecessarily high, costs will be shifted, financing inequities will persist, and those without coverage will have difficulty getting quality care. Without coverage, the uninsured receive little preventive care and receive medical attention only when they become seriously ill. And then, they are often treated in a less cost-effective setting.

Improved quality of care must be the goal of all health interventions so that we can assure optimal outcomes for the resources expended. Yet our current system too often lacks universally accepted standards of appropriate medical care.

Mistreatment, over-treatment and under-treatment are all examples of poor quality care and all adversely affect both outcomes and the costs of care. Even though the cumulative cost of care in the U.S. currently surpasses one trillion dollars annually, sufficient

information for informed decisions by consumers, providers, employers, and other interested parties is frequently unavailable. It should be a nationwide priority to correct this deficiency.

Cost containment and equitable financing are critical to attaining a workable, affordable and sustainable health care system. They are also requisites to providing health insurance coverage for all. If the costs of health care can be contained and equitably distributed, necessary health care services will remain within the reach of all employers and individuals. If the costs of health care cannot be contained and equitably distributed, the negative implications and outcomes for our country will be enormous.

Equitable financing is a central requirement of any system which seeks to provide and sustain health insurance for all. Currently, the insured and many employers are forced to pay more than they should in order to compensate for the costs of caring for the uninsured. Cost shifting of this sort has contributed to the deterioration of public support for our current health system and to the drop in employment-based coverage. Universal coverage cannot be achieved or sustained without equitable financing.

Simplified administration is essential to reduce costs and create a more efficient health care system. The excess bureaucracy and administrative expense associated with the present system increase costs unnecessarily. A less complex administrative system will minimize needless costs, be more user-friendly, and enable precious health care dollars to go toward improved health care, not bureaucracy.

These are the five guiding principles for which the National Coalition on Health Care stands and which are essential for successful reform. We are committed to using every possible opportunity to achieve these goals.]