PRINCIPLES FOR BUILDING ON WHAT’S WORKING IN HEALTH CARE

Every American deserves access to affordable health coverage and high-quality care. Our health care system allows tens of millions of patients and families to receive world-class care delivered by world-class doctors and hospitals.

But we can and must do more to ensure health care works for all Americans. That’s why the nation’s leading doctors, nurses, clinicians, community hospitals, health insurance providers and biopharmaceutical companies are committed to working together to ensure every American has access to the affordable, high-quality coverage they deserve.

By coming together to build on and improve what’s working – where private coverage, Medicare and Medicaid work together to expand access to coverage and care – we can lower costs, protect patient choice, expand access, improve quality and foster innovation.

ACCESS:

Strengthen the employer-provided coverage millions of Americans rely on and defend protections for Americans living with pre-existing conditions, all while ensuring access to care through the health care exchanges, strengthening Medicaid for the uninsured, and protecting Medicare programs for our most vulnerable.

• Encourage employers to maintain employer-provided benefits by maintaining or expanding tax preferences for the provision of benefits to a healthy workforce
• Restore and expand outreach and enrollment funding and re-engage with partner organizations to boost enrollment through the health care exchanges
• Close the coverage gap and advocate for full state adoption of Medicaid expansion so Americans making below 138 percent of the federal poverty level can receive health coverage and care and provide additional federal support for new states to expand Medicaid
• Enhance federal funding for Medicaid during economic downturns to ensure the program is affordable for states and allows Medicaid to continue to deliver care for those who need it
• Eliminate Medicaid changes, such as work requirements and other barriers that would reduce access to coverage and care

AFFORDABILITY:

Promote policies that encourage competition throughout the health care delivery system, which will assure equitable access to affordable, high-quality coverage and care options for all Americans.

• Improve affordability for working families and ensure Americans pay an amount they can afford for their health insurance
• Increase cost-sharing subsidies for people with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level
• Enhance health care spending account (HSA) allowances by enabling employees to use their HSAs to pay for insurance premiums and telehealth services and allow for Americans in high deductible health plans additional flexibility to cover items and services, such as additional medications to treat and prevent chronic conditions
• Safeguard the future of Medicare and ensure that strong public-private partnerships can work together to deliver care and coverage for our must vulnerable

QUALITY:

Accelerate value-based reimbursement and development of evidence-based guidelines to deliver more personalized and patient-centric care — particularly for those with chronic conditions — while addressing social determinants of health and promoting health equity.

• Advance preventive care solutions like worksite clinics and wellness programs to improve employee health on a day-to-day basis
• Support efforts to securely share health record data across systems and advance critical data infrastructure at the local, state, and federal levels to facilitate secure health record data-sharing, enhance the ability to identify critical health needs, and monitor emerging public health emergencies
• Accelerate the move to value-based payments using consistent, easy to understand measures of quality to improve health care, eliminate health disparities, and deliver value
• Bolster testing and deployment of innovative solutions such as digital health technologies and telehealth that can improve quality of care and facilitate remote access to medical services where appropriate