oldenGoldenDecoy's picture

    Have You Heard This Health Care Song & Dance Before?

     . . . wanna buy a new improved vacuum cleaner ?


    Warning in advance -- the following commercial announcement is brought to you by:

    Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and pay nearly half of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Annually, they return $133 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy.

    Business Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with more than $70 billion in annual research and development spending - more than a third of the total private R&D spending in the U.S.


    Here's the pitch:

    Business Roundtable's Health Care Reform Plan

    Health care delivery needs a new business model: one that puts customers in the center and uses the power of the market to lower costs, improve quality, create more consumer choice and expand accessibility.

    Business Roundtable has a four-pillar plan that, we believe, will put us on the path to a competitive health care system:

    Creating greater consumer value in the health care marketplace by using health information technology and empowering consumers with more information about good quality health care.

    Providing more affordable health insurance options for all Americans by creating an open, all-inclusive private market for health insurance and replacing today's fragmented state-by-state market with multistate markets. To ensure that insurance plans are solvent and meet certain minimum requirements, the role of individual states as the primary regulator should continue. Broader, more competitive markets will create more choices for more health care consumers.

    Engaging all Americans in taking an active role in their health care. First, this means placing an obligation on all Americans to obtain health insurance either through their employer or the private market. Second, we must encourage all Americans to participate in employer- or community-based prevention, wellness and chronic care programs.

    Offering health coverage and assistance to low-income, uninsured Americans that create a stable and secure public safety net. This assistance would be financed from the cost savings and efficiencies generated by a more competitive and value-driven health care system.


    Today, our health care system leaves major consumer needs unmet, costs unchecked and basic practices untouched by the productivity revolution that has transformed every other sector of our economy.

    The Business Roundtable Health Care Value Comparability Study should add to the urgency felt by all major U.S. stakeholders to stimulate faster improvement in the performance of America's health care system. We can do better. The global competitiveness of U.S. employers and workers depends on it.

    This executive summary of the study is available online (.pdf)


    Just give the "more competitive and value-driven health care system" with "broader, more competitive markets [that] will create more choices for more health care consumers" another chance.

    It all sounds like the same old song and dance routine we have all heard before.

    It all sounds so well prepared. 


    ~OGD~

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