October 2000 • Post-Assembly Edition • Dallas
Highlights of report
The above ad appeared in journals at the Democratic and Republican national conventions this summer.
The report of the Task Force on Universal Coverage gives guidelines and specific elements for a plan to reform the U.S. health care system.
Guidelines. The guidelines say, for example:
- Acknowledging that our current health care system is fundamentally flawed, we are committed to work for a re-formation of the U.S. health care system.
- A uniform, outcomes-based benefits package will be available to all within U.S. borders. Financial support of basic health services will be a shared, public/private, cooperative effort.
- The system will allow for individual purchase of additional services or insurance coverage.
Specific elements. The key elements include the following:
- The program would assure that all Americans receive basic services without copayments or deductibles.
- A process would be created for deciding basic benefits.
- Payroll taxes would finance the program, with one-third of the cost paid by employees, two-thirds by employers. Current Medicaid funds would be redirected to the new program.
- States would administer the program.
- A "federal reserve board" type of organization would oversee plan participants' responsibility to meet their obligations.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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