What Hill Staff Should Know About Health Care

Our current health system is not sustainable. It leaves many Americans without access to quality, affordable health coverage, weakens the ability for U.S. businesses to compete internationally, and threatens the stability of our economy.

There are many ways that we could achieve a system of coverage for all Americans. However, in order to be economically and politically sustainable over time, any comprehensive reform plan must:

• Cover all Americans

  Lack of health insurance negatively affects the overall productivity of society, the stability of emergency care, and the health and financial well-being of individuals.

• Control health care cost growth

  No health reform proposal will be sustainable over time without serious efforts to control health care cost growth. Rising health care costs are the most pressing economic challenge facing our nation and have left many Americans simply unable to afford health insurance. In addition, the cost of health care threatens the competitiveness of U.S. businesses and the solvency of the Medicare program.

• Improve quality

  The Institute of Medicine estimates that almost 100,000 people die every year as a result of preventable medical errors. This is far higher than the OECD average...

For the full text of the the issue brief, please see the PDF attached below.