Health Care for All

The need for health care reform is well-known and, to most Americans, indisputable.  Numerous statistics and an endless trove of real-life stories document the need for bold health care reform.  This section provides four sets of policies to help state legislators and advocates build proposals and political strategies to challenge the self-interests of the health care industry and successfully move health care reform:

• Affordable, Quality Health Care for All
• Strategies to Extend Coverage to Uninsured
• Improve Quality and Cut Health Care Costs
• Stop Health Care Industry Profiteering

The cost of health care is the primary reason at least 47 million Americans lack coverage and at least 25 million more are under-insured, meaning their insurance does not shield them from high health care costs.  From 2002 to 2007, family insurance premiums rose 78% while inflation rose 17% and wages a mere 19%.  Both employers and employees are feeling the squeeze.  

Failure to create a coordinated and user-friendly health care system that provides necessary coverage for all Americans has left us with the endemic health care costs and wasteful spending that define our disjointed health care system.  For instance, a staggering 78% of all health care costs are for people with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and depression - costs which could be reduced with effective management and disease prevention.