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Ed Yeates ReportingA coalition of some of the most influential groups in the country has laid aside politics agreeing on a proposal to take care of at least half of America's 47-milllion uninsured.
The announcement was made today with recommendations now going before Congress.
For the first time, the sixteen national organizations that have debated health care policy for the past thirty years--wearing many stripes--have now unified. In fact, they're calling themselves the "Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured."
While most of us get health care almost routinely on a daily basis - 47 million in this country DON'T! In fact, even when sick, they won't see a doctor because they can't pay the bill.
Jeremy Lazarus, American Medical Association: "The institute of medicine tells us that 18-thousand Americans die every year because they don't have access to health coverage. So we've really put our differences aside and come to a consensus on a plan that would cover almost half the uninsured in this country."
That plan: Tax credits and expansion of existing government programs, including Medicaid and the state's own Children's Health Insurance Program to make it easier for low income families to pay for insurance.
We talked to Jeremy Lazarus and Kevin Lofton today, via satellite from Washington. They represent this new HCCU coalition which reads like a who's who among movers and shakers.
AARP, America's Health Insurance Plans, Family Physicians, Hospitals, the American Medical Association, Public Health, BlueCross - BlueShield, Catholic Health, Families USA, the Federation of Hospitals, Healthcare Leadership, Johnson and Johnson, Kaiser, Pfizer, UnitedHealth, and the Chamber of Commerce.
If Congress goes for what this unified group now wants, insurance for children would kick in first, with enrollment working much like a school lunch program.
Kevin Lofton, American Hospital Association: "In Utah alone, there are 88-thousand children who are uninsured. So our first phase will be to insure all children. We think the first phase will let us insure almost all of the children in this country."
Adults would follow after 2007.
The plan would reduce the number of uninsured in these ranks by half and overuse of E.R's, which for many has been the only source for care.
Lofton: "Right now, if you are uninsured, your only access to health care is to go through an E.R. Seventy-five percent of those who avail themselves of these services really don't have to."
Instead, a new home for continuing care! HCCU says though the price tag is 45-billion dollars over five years just for the first phase to insure kids to do nothing is far more costly.
