Copied from the Democratic Platform:
Affordable, Quality Health Care Coverage for All Americans
34 If one thing came through in the platform hearings, it was that Democrats are united
35 around a commitment to provide every American access to affordable, comprehensive
36 health care. In meeting after meeting, people expressed moral outrage with a health care
37 crisis that leaves millions of Americans–including nine million children–without health
38 insurance and millions more struggling to pay rising costs for poor quality care. Half of
39 all personal bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills. We spend more on
40 health care than any other country, but we're ranked 47th in life expectancy and 43rd in
41 child mortality. Our nation faces epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases as well as
42 new threats like pandemic flu and bioterrorism. Yet despite all of this, less than four cents
43 of every health care dollar is spent on prevention and public health.
The American people understand that good health is the foundation of individual
2 achievement and economic prosperity. Ensuring quality, affordable health care for every
3 single American is essential to children's educations, workers' productivity and
4 businesses' competitiveness. We believe that covering all is not just a moral imperative,
5 but is necessary to making our health system workable and affordable. Doing so would
6 end cost-shifting from the uninsured, promote prevention and wellness, stop insurance
7 discrimination, help eliminate health care disparities, and achieve savings through
8 competition, choice, innovation and higher quality care. While there are different
9 approaches within the Democratic Party about how best to achieve the commitment of
10 affordable, universal coverage for all, we stand united to achieve this fundamental
11 objective through the legislative process.
12
13 We therefore oppose those who advocate policies that
14 would thrust millions of Americans out of their
15 current private employer-based coverage without
16 providing them access to an affordable,
17 comprehensive alternative, thereby subjecting them to
18 the kind of insurance discrimination that leads to
19 excessive premiums or coverage denials for older and
20 sicker Americans. We reject those who have
21 steadfastly opposed insurance coverage expansions
22 for millions of our nation’s children while they have
23 protected over-payments to insurers over and allowed
24 underpayments to our nation’s doctors. Our vision of
25 a strengthened and improved health care system for
26 all Americans stands in stark contrast to the
27 Republican Party's and includes:
28
29 Covering all Americans and Providing Real Choices
30 of Affordable Health Insurance Options.
31 Families and individuals should have the option of keeping the coverage they have or
32 choosing from a wide array of health insurance plans, including many private health
33 insurance options and a public plan. Coverage should be made affordable for all
34 Americans with direct financial assistance through tax credits and other means.
35
36 Shared Responsibility. Health care should be a shared responsibility between employers,
37 workers, insurers, providers and government. All
38 Americans should have coverage they can afford;
39 employers should have incentives to provide coverage
40 to their workers; insurers and providers should ensure
41 high quality affordable care; and the government
42 should ensure that health insurance is affordable and
43 provides meaningful coverage. As affordable coverage
44 is made available, individuals should purchase health
45 insurance and take steps to lead healthy lives.
46An End to Insurance Discrimination. Health insurance plans should accept all applicants.
2 and be prohibited from charging different prices based on pre-existing conditions. They
3 should compete on the cost of providing health care and the quality of that care, not their
4 ability to avoid or over-charge people who are or may get sick. Premiums collected by
5 insurers should be primarily dedicated to care, not profits.
6
7 Portable Insurance. No one should have to worry about losing health coverage if they
8 change or lose jobs.
9
10 Meaningful Benefits. Families should have health insurance coverage similar to what
11 Members of Congress enjoy. They should not be forced to bear the burden of
12 skyrocketing premiums, unaffordable deductibles or benefit limits that leave them at
13 financial risk when they become sick. We will finally achieve long-overdue mental health
14 and addiction treatment parity.
15
16 An Emphasis on Prevention and Wellness. Chronic diseases account for 70 percent of the
17 nation’s overall health care spending. We need to promote healthy lifestyles and disease
18 prevention and management in places of employment and in school. All Americans
19 should be empowered to promote wellness and have access to preventive services to
20 impede the development of costly chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, heart
21 disease, and hypertension. Chronic-care and behavioral health management should be
22 assured for all Americans who require care coordination. This includes assistance for
23 those recovering from the traumatic life altering injuries and illnesses as well as those
24 with mental health and substance use disorders. We should promote additional tobacco
25 and substance abuse prevention.
26
27 A Modernized System That Lowers Cost and Improves the Quality of Care. As Americans
28 struggle with increasing health care costs, we believe a strengthened, uniquely American
29 system should provide the highest quality, most cost-effective care. This should be
30 advanced by aggressive efforts to cut costs and eliminate waste from our health system,
31 which will save the typical family up to $2,500 per year. These efforts include driving
32 adoption of state-of-the-art health information technology systems, privacy-protected
33 electronic medical records, reimbursement incentives and an independent organization
34 that reviews drugs, devices, and procedures to ensure that people get the right care at the
35 right time. By working with the medical community to improve quality, these reforms
36 will have the added benefit of reducing the prevalence of lawsuits related to medical
37 errors. We should increase competition in the insurance and drug markets; remove some
38 of the cost burden of catastrophic illness from employers and their employees; and lower
39 drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prices, allowing importation of
40 safe medicines from other developed countries, creating a generic pathway for biologic
41 drugs, and increasing use of generics in public programs.
42 A Strong Health Care Workforce. Through training and reimbursement incentives, there
43 must be a commitment to sufficient and well-qualified primary care physicians and
44 nurses as well as direct care workers.
Commitment to the Elimination of Disparities in Health Care. We 1 must end health care
2 disparities among minorities, American Indians, women, and the low-income through
3 better research and better funded community-based health centers. We will make our
4 health care system culturally sensitive and accessible to those who speak different
5 languages. We will speed up and improve reimbursements by the Indian Health Service.
6 Public Health and Research. Health and wellness is a shared responsibility among
7 individuals and families, school systems, employers, the medical and public health
8 workforce and government at all levels. We will ensure that Americans can benefit from
9 healthy environments that allow them to pursue healthy choices. Additionally, as
10 childhood obesity rates have more than doubled in the last 30 years, we will work to
11 ensure healthy environments in our schools.
12 We must fight HIV/AIDS in our country and around the world. We support increased
13 funding into research, care and prevention of HIV/AIDS. We support comprehensive
14 national strategic plan to combat HIV/AIDS and a Ryan White Care Act designed and
15 funded to meet today’s epidemic, that ends ADAP waiting lists, that focuses on the
16 communities such as African Americans and Latino Americans who are
17 disproportionately impacted through an expanded and renewed Minority HIV/AIDS
18 initiative, and on new epicenters such as the Southern part of our nation. We support
19 providing Medicaid coverage to more low-income HIV-positive Americans.
20 Health care reform must also ensure adequate incentives for innovation to ensure that
21 Americans have access to evidence-based and cost-effective health care. Research should
22 be based on science, not ideology. We need to invest in biomedical research and stem
23 cell research, so that we are at the leading edge of prevention and treatment. This
24 includes adequate funding for research into diseases such as cancer, heart disease,
25 Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, autism and other common and rare diseases and disorders.
26 We will increase funding to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science
27 Foundation and the National Cancer Institutes.
28 A Strong Partnership with States, Local Governments, Tribes, and Territories.
29 Recognizing that considerable progress in health care delivery has been pioneered by
30 state and local governments, necessary nation-wide reform should build on successful
31 state models of care.
32 A Strong Safety-Net. Achieving our health goals requires strengthening the safety-net
33 programs, safety-net providers, and public health infrastructure to fill in gaps and ensure
34 public safety in times of disease outbreak or disaster.
35 Empowerment and Support of Older Americans and People with Disabilities. Seniors and
36 people with disabilities should have access to quality affordable long-term care services,
37 and those services should be readily available at home and in the community. Americans
38 should not be forced to choose between getting care and living independent and
39 productive lives.
Reproductive Health Care
2 We oppose the current Administration’s consistent attempts to undermine a woman’s
3 ability to make her own life choices and obtain reproductive health care, including birth
4 control. We will end health insurance discrimination against contraception and provide
5 compassionate care to rape victims. We will never put ideology above women’s health.
6
7 Fiscal Responsibility. As we improve and strengthen our health care system, we must do
8 so in a fiscally responsible way that ensures that we get value for the dollars that are
9 invested
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/2008%20Democratic%20Platform%208-10.pdf
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