Health Care That Works for All Americans

A national initiative on the future of health care

The United States spends nearly two trillion dollars on health each year. Yet, the health care system that captures vast amounts of America’s resources, employs many of its talented citizens and promises to both promote health as well as relieve the burdens of disease is failing many Americans.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 called for an initiative that would “engage [all Americans] in an informed national public debate to make choices about the services they want covered, what health care coverage they want, and how they are willing to pay for coverage.”

From late 2005 through the summer of 2006, the Public Forum Institute helped coordinate and implement a national initiative to address the ailing system. Overall, it required a breadth of effort ranging from live one-on-one conversations and community meetings, to research, to mass communications through the internet and press. More specifically, for nearly eighteen months, Health Care That Works for All Americans engaged individuals from all walks of life through public forums, thousands of discussions on the internet, expert hearings, analysis of national polls and personal face-face conversations. 

Following the drafting of initial recommendations based on accumulated public input, Interim Recommendations were made available for a 90-Day comment period. More than 5,000 individuals responded, and dozens of organizations representing millions of Americans issued formal statements in response to the recommendations.

That feedback helped shape the initiative's final recommendations, outlining both a vision and a plan for achieving broad-based change in the delivery and financing of health care in America. Those recommendations are:

• Establish Public Policy that All Americans Have Affordable Health Care

• Guarantee Financial Protection Against Very High Health Care Costs

• Foster Innovative Integrated Community Health Networks

• Define Core Benefits and Services for All Americans

• Promote Efforts to Improve Quality of Care and Efficiency

• Fundamentally Restructure the Way End-of-Life Services are Financed and Provided

SUMMARY REPORTS

Baton Rouge, LA

Billings, MT

Charlotte, NC

Denver, CO

Des Moines, IA

Detroit, MI

Eugene, OR

Indianapolis, IN

Jackson, MS

Kansas City, MO

Memphis, TN

Miami, FL

New York, NY

Oklahoma City, OK

Orlando, FL

Philadelphia, PA

Phoenix, AZ

Providence, RI

Sacramento, CA

Salt Lake City, UT

Tucson, AZ

Upper Valley, NH

Washington, DC