Senator John Edwards
This page was last updated on April 17, 2007. For the most up-to-date information regarding Sen. Edwards’s health policy proposals, visit http://johnedwards.com.
John Edwards' Healthcare Reform Proposal: Reform is Built on Four Principles
The following summary was derived from information released by the office of Senator John Edwards:
John Edwards' plan is based on the following four principles: business responsibility, government responsibility, creation of new Health Markets, and individual responsibility. Each principal must do their part to achieve universal health coverage and make a better healthcare system for all.
According to Edwards, his plan would achieve universal coverage by:
- Requiring businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance.
- Making insurance affordable by creating new tax credits, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, reforming insurance laws, and taking innovative steps to contain health care costs.
- Creating regional "Health Markets" - Every American would share the bargaining power to purchase an affordable, high-quality health plan, increase choices among insurance plans, and cut costs for businesses offering insurance. Health Markets would do the following:
- Offer primary and preventive services at little or no cost
- Give participants a choice among affordable, quality plans
- Allow Americans to keep their plan when they change or lose their job
- Offer choice between private insurance plan and a public insurance plan, which would be modeled after Medicare, but separate and apart from it
- Potentially evolve towards a single-payer approach if individuals and businesses prefer the public plan
- Hold down administrative costs reducing the need for underwriting and marketing activities o Negotiate low premiums through their economies of scale
- Work with insurers to adopt cost-effective approaches to healthcare like preventive care and to collect the data necessary to drive quality improvement
- Allow businesses to opt into the market, which they would only have to make financial contributions to the cost of covering their employees through markets, similar to their role in Social Security and Medicare
