We applaud the House and the Senate for their ongoing efforts to obtain universal coverage for all Americans and to reform the current insurance system through measures such as eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions.
Mayo Encouraged by Co-op Public Option
Mayo Clinic believes that the provision in Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ bill to foster the creation of consumer operated and oriented plans (CO-OP) is an encouraging step toward securing access to insurance to all Americans.
This option will give patients more opportunities for health care choice than a Medicare-like, price controlled plan. In addition, the Co-op plans, which will be member-run, nonprofit insurance companies, will be truly public plans because they will be owned and run by the consumers who use them.
Insurance reform that gives access to everyone
We recommend an individual mandate where individuals can purchase insurance in various ways: through employers, on the individual market, through exchanges, through co-operatives, or through a model like the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP).
In our plan, employers would be free to provide the insurance if they desire. People should be able to choose the coverage they want. Americans would own their own policies and their coverage would be portable. The role for government would be to help people afford the insurance through sliding scale subsidies as needed.
The FEHBP model, which utilizes an insurance exchange to make available multiple private plan choices—just like Members of Congress and all federal employees have—is the best “public plan” for enabling insurance for all.
If the “public plan” means a government-run, price-controlled, Medicare-like insurance model, we do not support it because it has been shown over many years that such a model has not controlled costs and has punished doctors, hospitals and others that provide high-quality, affordable care.
5 Comments
Having exchanges like the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program would indeed be one of the best possible reforms, and with the Wyden admendment to open the exchanges to everyone, we’d have a tremendous increase in transparency if the “bronze,” “silver,” etc. defined plans are used.
It’s almost a minor point given the above, but a public plan does not imply a price-controlled outcome.
More:
http://findingourdream.blogspot.com/2009/09/wyden-and-rockefeller-mayo-clinic-now.html
How do the poor pay for health insurance without substantial government subsidies? Is Mayo OK with government paid subsidies?
Health Policy is very very usefule for evryone plz keep in mind.
Green Tea
One of the roles of government, as proposed by the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center, would be to assist people in purchasing private insurance through sliding scale subsidies. If people are able to pay even a portion, they should do that so they have some personal investment in their health. But, the government can and should assist people as needed. If a person’s or family’s income cannot provide toward insurance, the role of the government is to cover them.
One of the keys is that the individual should own the insurance, so they are not dependent on an employer. If individuals own their own insurance, it becomes portable and can move with them if they change jobs or become unemployed. Employers and the government could contribute to helping pay the premiums. Ideally, people would have the choice to keep their insurance through the end of their life if they are satisfied with it, and not be required to enter Medicare upon retirement.
Nice post, thanks for sharing this wonderful and usefull information with us.
Green Tea