PILMA—Principles
Access
Access to comprehensive health insurance is the ultimate goal and crucial in maintaining a strong workforce and a sustainable economy.
- Employer-sponsored insurance and improvements to existing health insurance market should be the focus of reforms designed to enable the employment-based market to serve as the centerpiece of access for all Americans.
Affordability
Health insurance must be affordable to be of value to citizens. By making health insurance affordable, more citizens can participate in our healthcare system.
Affordability can be promoted through a wide-variety of methods, such as targeted low-income subsidies to help employees afford to take advantage of offered employer health insurance. For those with limited access to jobs that offer insurance, stakeholders in the healthcare market should work together to develop new products at reasonable costs.
Choice
Freedom of choice promotes competition among providers, in turn improving quality and affordability. By allowing patients to have a greater level of choice in their healthcare, patients may take a greater role in the decision-making process and increase their own levels of personal responsibility.
- Patient choice is important to maintain and expand. By allowing open access to providers, facilities and health products from which patients can choose, patient choice can become a key driver of innovation and health program design.
Flexibility
Flexibility in the healthcare market may enable the development of solutions that allow populations with different needs to take advantage of different solutions. There is no one size fits all solution. A wide-range of programs already exist but have not been fully accessed by those eligible for assistance due to limited outreach and information dissemination.
- Programs that currently exist should be utilized to their fullest extent. These include SCHIP reauthorization at the federal level, utilizing community health centers, and maximizing the existing Medicaid structures in the states.
Wellness
Health and wellness should be promoted as a simple and essential public health benefit. The importance of nutrition and fitness activities cannot be understated as part of a well-rounded lifestyle.
- Both physical and emotional well-being link directly to overall health. By promoting wellness options and healthy lifestyles, people can develop lifestyles and habits that may serve to protect them from illness.
Disease Prevention
The early detection and prevention of disease should be a component of all health reforms. Chronic illness leads to personal costs, family life costs, and overall health system issues related to high medical expenses. Any movement towards comprehensive health reform should address prevention as a cornerstone of that reform.
- Chronic illness is estimated to consume eighty-percent of all annual health costs. Focus on preventing long-term illnesses such as asthma, heart disease and diabetes will enable millions of possible patients to avoid such chronic illnesses.
Safety Net
Public safety net programs should be strengthened to meet the needs of vulnerable patients who are unable to afford private insurance coverage.
- The safety net serves as the main healthcare resource to a large number of patients with limited resources and access to health services. Until any comprehensive reforms take place, ensuring that the existing mechanisms of health access to the most-needy patients is important to protect their health.