title: Physicians' Plan for a healthy Minnesota. The MMA proposal for health care reform. The report of the Minnesota Medical Association Health Care Reform Task Force.
abstract: The health care system in the United States, according to some, is on the verge of imploding. The rapidly rising cost of services is causing more and more Minnesotans to forego needed care. At the same time, the increasing costs are placing additional pressure on families, businesses, and state and local government budgets. The Minnesota Medical Association's (MMA) Health Care Reform Task Force has proposed a bold new approach that seeks to ensure affordable health care for all Minnesotans. The proposal is a roadmap to provide all Minnesotans with affordable insurance for essential health care services. In creating this plan, the task force strove to achieve three common reform goals: expand access to care, improve quality, and control costs. To achieve those ends, it has proposed a model built on four key features: (1) A strong public health system, (2) A reformed insurance market that delivers universal coverage, (3) A reformed health care delivery market that creates incentives for increasing value, (4) Systems that fully support the delivery of high-quality care. The task force believes that these elements will provide the foundation for a system that serves everyone and allows Minnesotans to purchase better health care at a relatively lower price. Why health care reform again? The average annual cost of health care for an average Minnesota household is about 11,000 dollars--an amount that's projected to double by 2010, if current trends continue. Real wages are not growing fast enough to absorb such cost increases. If unabated, these trends portend a reduction in access to and quality of care, and a heavier economic burden on individuals, employers, and the government. Furthermore, Minnesota and the United States are not getting the best value for their health care dollars. The United States spends 50 percent more per capita than any other country on health care but lags far behind other countries in the health measures of its population.
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees; D003164:Competitive Bidding / Q000639:trends*; D003363:Cost Control / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000639:trends*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008910:Minnesota; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013221:State Health Plans / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States; D019472:Universal Health Insurance / Q000639:trends