Public Agenda: First Choice 2004

Create Your Own Choicework: Health Care

Choicework is a useful way to think through public issues, but the approaches we describe aren't the only way to look at this problem. You may have your own ideas, and people often decide they can't totally buy into one approach. So look at the options below and come up with your own way of looking at the problem. Check off all of the actions you think should be taken and add your own ideas.

Check off all of the actions you think should be taken:

Use competition to make the system more efficient

Encourage more employers to provide coverage through HMOs and other forms of managed care to ensure competition.

Encourage small businesses to join together in insurance pools to negotiate for better rates.

Give patients more ways to pay for care, such as tax-free medical savings accounts that can be used for premiums, co-payments and deductibles.

Encourage the use of lower-cost generic drugs and allow people to buy approved drugs from Canada and Europe. Charge patients more if they insist on brand-name drugs.

Allow private insurers to create basic policies that would cover the most common problems and make coverage affordable for small businesses and individuals.

Expand the current system to cover more people

Lower the Medicare eligibility age to 55.

Extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program cutoff age to 25.

Increase Medicaid funding and raise the income cutoff to cover the working poor.

Open up the federal employees health insurance program to allow individuals without insurance to buy coverage at favorable rates.

Offer tax incentives for businesses to extend health coverage to part-time and low-wage workers.

Create a national health care system

Create a Medicare-style “single payer” system, where the government provides health insurance for everyone.

Allow patients to get a standard list of covered health services from any doctor or hospital in the program.

Raise taxes or repeal existing tax cuts to fund the program.

Tie the new health insurance system into existing government programs to promote good nutrition, mental health awareness and exercise.

Are there other actions not listed here that you think should be considered? If so, enter them here:

Additional action: