Health Foundation Principles of Reform

The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati’s Healthcare Reform Principles

Since 1997, The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati has invested over $111 million in projects that improve the health of the Cincinnati area. With major healthcare reform imminent, the Health Foundation aims to be a source for credible, timely information that can inform people in our region about the healthcare reform debate. While we do not support any specific plan or approach, we do support certain principles that we believe would improve access to healthcare and make our region healthier.

If you would like to see the healthcare reform legislation Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which includes our principles, please click here.

The Health Foundation supports a healthcare system that:

• Is for all and
  • Is a coordinated system that preserves choice,
  • Provides access to affordable private or public insurance coverage,
  • Provides access to appropriate healthcare services,
  • Encourages and rewards quality care, and
  • Has broad financing and cost controls.

Is for All

• Coordinated care, affordable coverage, and appropriate, quality care should be available to all regardless of pre-existing health conditions, health status, and employment status

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Coordinated System that Preserves Choice

• Is coordinated across physical health care, dental health care, pharmaceutical care, mental health care, substance use disorder
  treatment, and other relevant systems
• Is supported by well-connected health information technology (IT)
• Preserves the individual’s choice of doctors

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Access to Affordable Private or Public Insurance Coverage

• Is affordable for all, with consideration for those with low income
• Provides access to coverage for core health services that everyone needs, including:
  • wellness and prevention
  • physical health treatment
  • dental health treatment
  • medications
  • mental health treatment
  • substance use disorder treatment
• Provides protection from high expenses due to serious medical conditions
• Provides choice to add additional insurance coverage or services, at the individual’s expense, such as specialty services, luxury services, or services outside the core services

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Access to Appropriate Healthcare Services

• Provides access to healthcare services in a timely manner
• Addresses healthcare access disparities
• Allows care to be provided in new locations to increase access for vulnerable groups (health care in a school or mental health treatment facility)
• Provides certain populations (such as people with physical or developmental disabilities, severe mental illnesses, or substance use disorders) with affordable, tailored services and coordination with non-health services that are important to maintaining health and reducing expenses across systems (education, employment, housing, child protection, and criminal justice systems)

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Encourages and Rewards Quality Care

• Provides timely access to high quality care to everyone
• Rewards high quality care
• Promotes personal responsibility for health
• Pays for more than encounters and procedures, including:
  • coordination of care
  • meeting important treatment standards
  • achieving important health outcomes
• Encourages use of medical homes and evidence-based treatment

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Broad Financing and Cost Controls

• Shares financial responsibility and accountability among individuals, employers, and the public and private sectors
  • Everyone pays something
• Realigns services, access, and quality in ways that:
  • reduce unnecessary and unproductive costs
  • optimize quality and outcomes
  • reduce net costs, both in the healthcare system and in other systems
  • permit innovation
  • contain the growth of healthcare and related costs

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Approved July 6, 2009

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