On Monday, America's Health Insurance Plans announced "a roadmap for reform" to expand health insurance coverage to include the more than 40 million uninsured Americans. AHIP's plan will build on existing public programs and will involve state and federal lawmakers as well as the public and private sectors.
The advancement of electronic health records is expected to contribute to cuts in healthcare costs needed to support the plan, said AHIP president Karen Ignagni.
According to George Halvorson, chair-elect of AHIP's board of directors, the plan is designed to be implemented incrementally, expanding access first to cover all children within three years and 95% of adults within 10 years.
AHIP estimates that full implementation of this proposal would cost the federal government approximately $300 billion over a 10-year period. With President Bush already calling for $200 billion for healthcare spending, AHIP's program would require filling a funding gap of $10 billion a year over 10 years, Halvorson said.
AHIP leaders did not have specifics on exactly how the $10 billion a year could be raised, but emphasized that the cost of ignoring the problem is already exacting a toll. Ignagni estimated that currently an average insured family pays approximately $1,000 of its annual premium toward covering uncompensated care to the uninsured.
"This is our most important domestic policy issue and the cost of not moving forward on it is not feasible," Ignagni said.
Ignagni and other AHIP leaders listed prevention of chronic diseases as one way to reduce the current cost of healthcare to subsidize expanded coverage for more Americans.
Key elements of AHIP's plan include:
* Expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover all uninsured children from low-income families.
* Expanding Medicaid to cover all uninsured adults with incomes below the federal poverty level.
* Creating a new tax-free healthcare account for families and individuals to use toward any type of healthcare coverage.
* Establishing a child healthcare tax credit for working families.
* Creating a new incentive grant program to assist states in expanding access.
AHIP plans to begin heavily promoting its plan to Congress immediately and has already garnered interest from 25 states, Ignagni said.
AHIP unveiled its plan in conjunction with results of a survey it conducted earlier this month, which found that 80 percent of Americans want Congress and state legislatures to do more to extend access to coverage.
"Rarely do you see this many respondents expecting their legislators to work on a particular issue," said Joel Johnson, partner at the Glover Park Group, the research firm that conducted the survey. He also noted that the level of interest was similar across both political parties.