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Show Health Care Reform Proposals for Utah Report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Health Care Coalition for Utah's Future/Project 2000 The Coalition for Utah's Future/Project 2000 is a six-year old nonprofit coalition which seeks to improve Utah's quality of life. The goal of the organization is to help shape public policy on health care, education, economic development, child care, and the environment. The Coalition believes a set of principles should guide any attempt to reform health care. Those principles include: • Access to basic health care for all Utah residents. • Financing shared reasonably by employers, government, providers, families, and individuals. • Cost containment managed in the public and private sector through an annual spending ceiling for health care services. • Quality assurance through a public process. • Insurance reform measures. • Basic benefits package to promote health and disease prevention. Stephen Holbrook is the Executive Director of Project 2000. Irene Fisher chairs the healthcare task force. Ms. Fisher is Executive Director of the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, University of Utah. In October, 1992, Project 2000 sponsored a forum for health care in which three committees, the business-oriented Blue Ribbon Committee on Health Care, Access to Health Care Legislative Task Force, and the Utah Health Care Access Steering Committee, presented proposals for health care reform. The members of the Coalition for Utah's Future are a group of community leaders who have been taking initiatives on such other major public concerns on education, transportation, and public lands. A committee of leading business people and health care executives, the Blue Ribbon Committee recommended public and private actions to improve economic discipline through improved effectiveness of private markets. Private Sector Recommendations: • Employers must jointly develop data bases which will support more effective health care purchasing. • Encourage providers to adopt more intensive use of Total Quality Management methods to improve the effectiveness of health care. • Establish employer coalitions which will combine employer's analytical resources and market power to implement effective purchasing strategies. • Establish an ongoing focal point of leadership supported by CEOs of major employers and small businesses. • Structure collaborative processes whereby providers and purchasers of care work together to develop more rational investment in new technology and capacity. • Create incentives for individuals to be more careful purchasers of insurance and health care services, and to take greater responsibility for their own personal health. Public Sector Recommendations: • Reform small group insurance markets to improve access to affordable health insurance for small business. • Establish one or more standard benefit packages. • Effectively target public health initiatives and maximize federal matching funds available through Utah's Health: An Annual Review 1993 139 |
