Hartford, CT – State Healthcare Advocate Kevin Lembo today proposed adoption of a common set of principles for healthcare and healthcare financing reform.  “If, as a statewide community, we can come to agreement on our goals and the context of discussion, it will make our collective efforts more likely to succeed,” Lembo said.  “We must remind ourselves daily that there are patients and families at the center of this debate.  Their consumer input is vital and, in some cases, their lives depend on a positive outcome.”

PRINCIPLES:

1. No one person, policy-maker, organization, agency or branch of government can “fix” the problems of healthcare access, affordability and financing on their own.
2. Problems in healthcare access, affordability and financing are complicated.  Honest and open debate on the merits of various reform proposals brings us closer to the most ideal outcome possible.
3. Building on the foundation and experience of Connecticut’s existing healthcare purchasing, all residents will enjoy sustainable financing for medically necessary care.
4. Policy-makers will, by resolution, call on federal lawmakers to expand eligibility for and access to healthcare programs under federal control.
5. Since traditional health insurance is based on a social insurance model that shares risk, policy-makers will take no step toward further segmentation of risk, but will work toward the creation of the largest, sustainable purchasing pools possible for the ill and healthy alike.
6. The physician-patient relationship will be a protected trust and serve as the foundation for high quality, cost effective, and medically necessary health services and management.
7. Administrative waste in healthcare and healthcare financing must be substantially reduced.  Reductions realized through increased healthcare financing efficiency will produce savings and reduce prices.
8. Healthcare will be patient-centered, with all individual and institutional providers cooperating to provide unduplicated, evidence-based, high quality care.
9. Healthcare will be privately and publicly financed, but delivered in the private sector.
10. Per capita healthcare costs will become stable and sustainable over time.