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Pfizer Public Policy: Pfizer's Health Reform Principles

Click to view a printer friendly version of the Health Reform Principles Brochure.

Preamble

The good health of all Americans is a national priority. Reform will allow our health care delivery system to achieve its full potential to prevent and treat disease, improve treatment, and secure wellness. Reform is necessary to improve quality and outcomes while simultaneously restraining the growth of costs. Reform of the U.S. health care system is a national imperative with compelling human implications.

The health care system should work equally well for all Americans. All Americans, regardless of health status or income, should have affordable access to health coverage and culturally relevant quality health care. Our goal must be to eliminate disparities in health and health care access and quality.

The best elements of the U.S. system must be enhanced. Health reform can correct the shortcomings of the current system without sacrificing the features that allow us to deliver the most advanced care in the world. Health reform should be focused on expanding coverage, improving quality, and enhancing coordination and efficiency of care and care delivery.

Improvements in treatment are a moral imperative. The health system should continue to encourage innovation in all areas of health care, including prevention, screening, diagnosis and medical treatment and in communications among providers and with patients.

Reform should be based on a broadly shared set of values that represent an American consensus and serve the needs of patients. The demands and challenges of health care reform are interrelated. The success of health reform will require a partnership among key stakeholders united by their common commitment to serving patients well.

Health Reform Principles

• All Americans must have access to quality, affordable health coverage.
  • The diversity of the uninsured and under-insured population requires multiple approaches to increasing access to coverage.
  • Immediate steps should be taken to ensure the fuller use of existing programs, supporting enrollment of individuals in programs for which they are already eligible.
  • Where possible, efforts to expand coverage should build on employer-sponsored health benefits. Individuals lacking employer-based coverage should receive favorable tax treatment for purchasing comparable health insurance.
  • Publicly subsidized programs should be strengthened to meet the needs of uninsured Americans unable to afford private coverage. Publicly subsidized programs should be administered through competing private delivery systems, as in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.
  • Health insurance reform must empower patients by providing them with greater choices for achieving coverage. Individuals should have a choice of benefit plans, health care professionals and cost-sharing arrangements.
• Health care delivery must be centered on the patient and on the patient-physician relationship.
  • The patient-physician relationship is fundamental to effective health care delivery and must be strengthened.
  • Health reform must assure access to treatments that meet the needs of individual patients.
  • Health care payment or reimbursement mechanisms should not deter access to medically necessary care.
  • Increased coordination of care among health care professionals through a medical home approach will help reduce redundancies and focus more effectively on the patient.
• Disease prevention and wellness must become a focus of our health care system.
  • Reform should include strong incentives for preventive health and wellness, and the coordination of care for chronic diseases. Expanding the use of cost-effective screenings, health education, and preventive regimens - including diet and exercise - will lessen disease and encourage early detection and treatment.
  • Effective disease management and enhanced patient education should be utilized to improve care and better control costs.
  • Health benefits should be designed to encourage compliance with recommended treatments.
  • Medication coverage is an essential element of quality health insurance. Health plans should allow patients access to treatments most appropriate to their medical condition as determined by the patient's health care professional.
• Efficiencies in the delivery of care should be pursued, including the broad adoption of health information technology.
  • Electronic medical records and personal health records should be adopted to support the development of the evidence base and to aid in clinical decision making.
  • Appropriate electronic sharing of clinical information should be allowed to inform clinical decision making, coordinate care, measure quality, and facilitate reimbursement of providers, subject to well defined and enforced privacy protection and system data security.
  • Market forces should be relied on to be the primary mechanism for controlling costs, and as such, reforms should encourage a vibrant, competitive health care market with multiple purchasers and providers.
  • Medical liability reforms should be implemented to reduce overuse of health care resources.
• Scientifically-sound comparative clinical effectiveness (CCE) research should be implemented as part of health reform.
  • A national center for CCE should be created that incorporates transparent processes and decision-making, the involvement of all stakeholders, and structural independence in which research priority setting is separated from the conduct of research.
  • The full range of health care treatments (drugs, devices, procedures, health plan features, benefit design and delivery measures) should be subject to study. Additionally, there should be a requirement to specifically study diverse patient populations.
  • The principle focus of a national CCE Center and all related entities should be to generate data and knowledge that facilitates the clear understanding of comparative clinical effectiveness of treatment options, separate from cost considerations.
  • Comparative clinical effectiveness insights should be used by physicians to help determine the most appropriate treatment for individual patients, with consideration given to their unique circumstances.
  • Therapeutic interchange of products or procedures for non-clinical reasons is not consistent with quality healthcare.
• Better information and communications are critical to improving health care delivery.
  • All parties need understandable, accurate and appropriate information to make the best decisions about available treatments, including associated benefits and risks.
  • Americans want and should have access to more information about medical problems and potential treatments so they can better understand their treatment options and communicate effectively with their physicians and other health care professionals.
  • Patients should have easily available and understandable information to know what is covered and what is not covered by their health plan.
  • Robust clinical outcomes measures should be captured and regularly be made available to patients.
  • Americans with low health literacy need additional assistance to help them and/or their care givers better understand treatments and navigate the health care system.
• Health reform must promote medical progress and advance the delivery of high quality care.
  • A reformed system must preserve significant incentives for research and technological innovation in order to ensure continued progress toward better health.
  • Reforms must focus on maintaining health and improving overall patient outcomes by providing patients with optimal care.
  • High quality care must be the standard for all Americans and health disparities must be eliminated.
  • A reformed system should better align the incentives of providers to effectively and efficiently deliver high quality health care.
  • Assuring patient safety is of paramount importance to the health care system. Robust safety monitoring capabilities, including active surveillance systems, must be implemented.
• Achieving meaningful health reform requires an open and deliberative process to build a broad American consensus.
  • The interests of all stakeholders should be discussed, considered and reconciled.
  • Conflicting stakeholder interests should be addressed from the perspective of the patient, leading to policies that maximize positive health outcomes, focus intensely on reducing the total cost of disease, and aim to deliver safe, high-quality, patient-centered care.
  • Partnerships are the best way to ensure broad-based, successful reforms.

Click to view a printer friendly version of the Health Reform Principles Brochure.

Last Updated August 2008