Health Care for All

Health Care that Works for All of Us

The problem: While the great majority of Americans have health coverage, the high cost of health care blocks too many people with coverage from getting the care they need and 30 million of our neighbors still have no health coverage. And for everyone, the prices we pay for most health care are much too high.

• Big insurance and drug corporations, and even many hospitals and doctors, are raking in huge profits by setting very high prices for health care.
• Skyrocketing insurance company deductibles, high hospital charges and price gouging by prescription drug corporations and some doctors are forcing us to choose between health care and other basics.
• More than half of Americans get their coverage through work, but premiums paid through our paychecks and rising deductibles and co-payments are squeezing working families.
• Almost all of the rest of us are covered through government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans’ Administration. But Medicare has gaps in coverage and has high out of pocket costs. Some people live in states with very limited Medicaid programs and others who have Medicaid may have trouble finding health care providers to care for them.
• The government also makes private coverage available through the Affordable Care Act – but that leaves too many people with high costs and, too often, a limited choice of health care providers and plans.
• The millions who are still uninsured are blocked from getting coverage by high premiums, complicated government eligibility rules and discrimination based on race, gender or where we come from.

Our solution: Our government should guarantee quality, affordable health care for everyone in America and our government should assure that health care services are affordable to us and to our nation.

How we get there: To make health care a human right and a public good, our government should guarantee that:

• If you live in the United States, you are covered at all times with health benefits that both treat disease and cover what people need to stay healthy, delivered when and where people need it, with no financial barriers to getting or using health care.
• Equity in health care access, treatment, research and resources for all people and communities.
• Access for all to the full range of health care providers that meet people’s needs, including people with serious and chronic conditions.
• Health care is affordable for our nation by the government establishing benchmark prices for all health services that eliminate profiteering.
• The individuals who provide our health care should be paid well enough to care for and support their families, recognizing the importance of their mission and their professionalism.
• We should pay hospitals and doctors and other professionals based on how well they take care of patients and for coordinating care, keeping us healthy, helping us take care of our own health, and improving the health of our communities.

Call to action:  We can create a health care system that works for our families, community and nation, not just the health care industry.

• It’s time that our elected officials stand up to the insurance and drug corporations and hospital chains and write the rules so that they put the health of our families and communities before their profits.
• Americans are proud of the best of our health care. It’s time we worked together to make the best of American health care work for all of us.

Download Health Care for All Narrative