Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
American Medical Association Proposes help for Uninsured Children
There are 46 million people in the US who have no health insurance coverage. This number is due to a lot of factors, but the result is that many of those uninsured are children. Massachusetts attorney Thomas M. Kiley, http://www.tomkileylaw.com, is concerned about this fact because he concentrates in representing families with birth injuries.
Individuals and families who are uninsured also face additional problems in this recession economy with the large numbers of workers being laid off and remaining unemployed for long time periods. The high number of uninsured people are also facing skyrocketing health care costs, dwindling employee health benefits, avoidable and preventable illnesses and injuries, premature death, and health disparities based on race, ethnicity, and income. This combination of factors is worrisome to all income levels of Americans. The American Medical Association, is involved in the national discussion about the uninsured statistics. They have established Voice for the Uninsured, a resource for giving uninsured people a place to tell their stories and a forum for discussing solutions to the problem. Voice for the Uninsured is a part of the AMA website.
The AMA has identified four strategies to contain health care costs because of their concern for this problem. Their strategies include: reducing the burden of preventable disease; making health care delivery more efficient; reducing nonclinical health system costs that do not contribute to patient care; and promoting value-based decision-making at all levels.
The AMA proposal involves making financial assistance to individuals and families to purchase a health care plan of their choice, with higher financial assistance to those with lower income levels. This assistance would be in the form of tax credits or vouchers that are earmarked for health insurance coverage. The AMA proposes that health insurance market regulations be reformed to establish fair "rules of the game" to protect vulnerable people, without driving up premiums for others.
According to the proposal, the financial assistance calls for the tax credits and vouchers to be enough to cover a significant portion of the premium costs for people of lower incomes. At the lowest income level, the proposal calls for 100% coverage of the premium. The AMA suggests this funding come from eliminating or capping the employee income tax exclusion that the federal government provides for employment-based health insurance that provides the government with $25 billion annually. The proposal also supports redistributing the public funds spent on uncompensated care and using tobacco tax revenue for the expansion of health care services.
The AMA proposal expects the government to finance and regulate health insurance coverage, while health plans and health care services are provided through private markets. This proposal stresses assistance based on need, freedom of choice, market innovation and fairness.
This proposal advocates choice by the consumer at the same time that health care coverage is expanded. The plan can be implemented on an incremental basis, step-by-step, as the financing is acquired. The AMA suggests individual tax credits for specific target populations as well as capping the tax exclusion for employment-based health insurance.
For information on State Children’s Health Insurance Program for the State of Massachusetts, go to http://www.mass.gov.
