The Coalition of Healthcare Coverage
Earlier this month a very unique coalition was formed to call for healthcare reform and universal healthcare coverage. The group is called “The Partnership for Quality Care” (PQC) and some of its founding members include Kaiser Permanente, Greater New York Hospital Association, Catholic Healthcare West, Daughters of Charity Health System and Service Employee International Union (SEIU).
This is a pretty interesting mix when you consider the union representation that includes nearly 2 million healthcare workers paired with the health systems where they are employed. The partnership further consists of for-profit, not for-profit and religious based health systems that care for over 45 million patients per year.
The partnership was started with an initial budget of about $5 million to educate state, local and federal officials and law makers on the need for reform and complete healthcare coverage.
The coalition was announced May 2, 2007, in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill. According to the SEIU Web site, George Halvorson, chair and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan/Hospitals, said “The Partnership for Quality Care will transcend ideological lines and cross traditional geographic and political boundaries, uniting those of us who are on the front lines of providing care”.
PCQ has a number of very lofty core principles that are also listed on the SEIU Web site and include the following;
- Ensure universal healthcare coverage for all Americans
- Improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare services by adopting clinical best practices and promoting organized systems of care
- Provide meaningful individual choice of providers and plans while promoting preventive care, protecting consumers from the costs of major illnesses, and improving the management of chronic conditions
- Achieve greater reliability in healthcare coverage, including improved portability of coverage and continuity of care.
These sure seem like lofty goals by such a great mix of players in healthcare. These core principles are becoming more and more the common goals of many candidate speeches and cries for reform everywhere. It is nice to actually see organizations with clout begin to form to execute on these tall desires.
It will be interesting to watch over the next couple years as this new partnership executes its plans and if policy makers start to move the wheels of reform and expanded healthcare coverage into motion.
Enjoy this issue of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting.
