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Positions
Principles and Components for Health Care Reform:
Accepted by the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition February 2010
The following are the principles listed in our BCWAC-HC Principles Statement. Under each principle are components that more fully develops how a reformed health care system would look.
Principles |
Components |
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1 |
Quality health care |
- Patient-centered Medical Home
- Evidence-based medicine
- Value for dollar
- Disease prevention – more wellness care to avoid sickness care
- Patient engagement in their own health care.
|
2 |
Affordability |
- Public health insurance coverage option for under 65
- Align payment incentives with value not volume
- Ability to pay; based on sliding scale
- Medical IT network to reduce errors and inform best practices research
|
3 |
Health care coverage for all |
- Even playing field through regulations if hybrid option is adopted
- No exclusion for pre-existing condition
|
4 |
Equitable |
- Everyone gets same basic care
- Basic care details decided by independent National Health Board (Like Fed Reserve for the economy)
- Consistent basic standards among all states
- Women not charged more than men
|
5 |
Sustainable |
- Improve methods of health care cost controls
- Streamline billing processes
- Reduce administration costs to 10%
- Transparency of what is covered by plan(s).
|
6 |
Focus on prevention |
- Promotes healthy outcomes
- Transparent access to information for culture of continuous learning to promote patient responsibility
- Set benchmarks for health improvement
- Reduce hospital re-admissions.
- Lower rate of preventable illness
- Incentives to reduce obesity and decrease tobacco use.
|
7 |
Provide lifelong continuum of care |
- Portability with job change or between jobs
- Covers reproductive health, dental, eye, mental health, addictions recovery
- Never denied access.
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Principles and Components for Economic Self-Sufficiency in Bucks County:
Accepted by the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition - 5/21/10
Preamble: Persuaded by experience that long-term system changes matter, and with a core conviction that all women and their families deserve access to services that help them achieve permanent economic self-sufficiency regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious belief, economic condition, or medical and behavioral health status, the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition comes together to support the following key principles and related specific components to those ends:
Principles Statement: (Long Range)
On behalf of Bucks County women and their families, the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition advocates for empowering women with education, training, resources and support so they may progress steadily toward achieving economic self-sufficiency. The Coalition supports a public and private economic and social system in Bucks County based on shared responsibilities and guided by the following principles:
- To provide an adequate supply of employment opportunities which pay family-sustaining wages;
- To provide access to high quality, affordable childcare, eldercare and caregiver support;
- To provide health insurance coverage for all family members;
- To provide educational opportunities to achieve financial literacy;
- To provide comprehensive integrated services that are accessible and available to all who need them;
- To provide workplace training and development needed for basic employment, ongoing marketability and advancement;
- To provide safe, secure housing for all income levels and needs;;
- To provide access to reliable transportation;
- To provide freedom from predatory and exploitive practices and persons;
- To provide assistance that allows women and their families to be as independent as possible and to reach their full capacity in the economy.
The effort to achieve these principles will be guided by gender-specific data collection and analysis, and accountability of all agencies and organizations. Benchmarks will be set and reviewed periodically to reflect the inherent dynamics of the economy.
Principles |
Components |
1 |
To provide an adequate supply of employment opportunities which pay family-sustaining wages |
- Community and economic development strategies that create jobs
- Appropriate, accessible and subsidized training programs
- Equal pay for equal work
- Changes in TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) to enable women to obtain a high school degree or post secondary education
- Encouragement and support of women and girls to prepare for careers that lead to self-sufficiency
- Encouragement and support of women and girls to pursue nontraditional occupations and encourage government, unions and nonprofits to provide support for retention of women in nontraditional jobs
- Laws and funding for education and training programs that address the needs of specific groups of women, e.g., displaced homemakers
- Education, encouragement and support of employers to actively recruit women into predominantly male jobs that pay better than traditional female jobs with similar educational and skill requirements
- Provision of paid sick leave and family leave
- Poverty guidelines that more accurately reflect the cost of living in Bucks County than does the Federal Poverty Level
- Educational opportunities aimed at defining a family-sustaining wage and steps to achieve it
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2 |
To provide access to high quality, affordable child care, eldercare and caregiver support |
- Improved compensation and professional development opportunities for early care and education providers
- Increased assistance for families who are ineligible or on waiting lists for child care subsidy
- Adoption by businesses and social service organizations of family-friendly policies and working hours for both hourly jobs and professional positions
- Collaboration throughout the economic system led by the Bucks County Quality Child Care Coalition
- Assistance for those in need of elder care support
|
3 |
To provide health insurance coverage for all family members |
- Quality, affordable health care established as a basic human right
- Outreach and health education that improves the use of preventive health care services and screenings
- Collaboration among organizations seeking to ensure access to health care services, including comprehensive reproductive health care, prevention and treatment services for behavioral health, including substance abuse and mental health
- System-wide support for community health centers and subsidized care
|
4 |
To provide educational opportunities to achieve financial literacy |
- Outcomes of the educational opportunities include:
- a balanced household budget;
- maintaining checking and savings accounts;
- awareness of legal protections and support resources
- acceptable credit rating or enrollment in an approved Credit Repair Plan
- Educational opportunities should be affordable and accessible to any consumer
|
5 |
To provide comprehensive integrated services that are accessible and available to all who need them |
- 2-1-1 will be in place and widely used
- Interagency communication will be open and transparent
- Awareness of and efficient access to all human services will be established
|
6 |
To provide workplace training and development needed for basic employment and ongoing marketability and advancement |
- Literacy programs that meet the needs of non-English speaking women
- Technological resources available to all students at all educational levels, especially in the areas of science, math, technology and engineering to prepare them for better-paying jobs by encouraging girls to explore and succeed in these fields
- Tutoring and mentoring programs at all educational levels
- Education, training, internships, career development and mentoring programs that support women and their children throughout the educational and professional development process
- Fully-enforced anti-discrimination laws and policies
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7 |
To provide safe, secure housing for all income levels and needs |
- A comprehensive housing strategy that supports the creation of affordable housing for all income levels and needs, and works with all sectors of the community
- Opportunities that build awareness in the entire community about the state of housing in Bucks County
- Efficient use of currently available housing assistance programs
- Inclusionary zoning throughout the county
- Promotion of the interest and skills of women in home construction, maintenance and repair, for self reliance and career options
|
8 |
To provide access to reliable transportation |
- Available transportation for training, work, daycare, and medical appointments for women and their dependents
- System-wide support will demand public transportation access
- Community partnerships (senior centers, school districts, churches, banks, car dealerships, etc) will exist to identify resources for repair, donation, or financing of individual vehicles
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9 |
Freedom from predatory and exploitive practices and persons |
- Non-tolerance of predatory, discriminatory practices, abuse and neglect of any consumer
- Protection from abuse of any kind
- Education and prevention programs targeted against domestic violence will be in place for the community at large
|
10 |
To provide assistance that allows people to be as independent as possible and to reach their full capacity in the economy |
- Reduced reliance on cash subsidies
- A strengthened public and private social safety net that addresses both temporary and long-term needs
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Health Care Crisis
May 7, 2009
The Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition is a nonpartisan group of Bucks County women and the nonprofit organizations that serve them. The organization recently delivered to the offices of Senators Arlen Specter, Senator Robert Casey, and Congressman Patrick Murphy a letter outlining what the Coalition members want to see included in any health care reform legislation this year.
The letter (click here) includes a set of principles that will guarantee high-quality, affordable health care for all. The letter also calls for a public health insurance option to be available alongside private plans in order to ensure the availability of an insurance product with a broad choice of providers and to encourage private plans to match the administrative efficiencies, costs-control abilities and quality improvement capacities of public insurance.
The Women’s Advocacy Coalition is composed of 15 signing members and 11 individuals. In 2008, they organized to empower, educate, and advocate to promote gender equality and economic self-sufficiency for all. The health care statement to the legislators is the first public action the Coalition has taken and a key component for economic self-sufficiency.
The coalition believes it is important to call attention to the impact the health care crisis has on women and the depth of support the principles in their letter has in the Bucks County community. Kathleen Welsh Beveridge, Convener of the Coalition said, "The gender disparities within the current health care system have received little public attention but are of grave concern to the members of our coalition."
Tam St. Claire, Chair of the Health Care Subcommittee added, "In our broken health care system, one in five women are uninsured. Since women, on average, have lower incomes than men, they are at particular risk of financial barriers to care; one in four women says that she is unable to pay her medical bills, and women are more likely than men to delay or go without needed health care because of cost. Accessible care for women means making sure that everyone has access to affordable coverage and health care, and ending unfair insurance practices - such as rejecting applicants based on health history, pre-existing condition exclusions, or setting insurance rates based on gender, health status, or age. It also means providing access to affordable health coverage regardless of employment or family status."
This is a critical time for organizations and individuals to act to make their voices heard by elected officials. As noted above, the opposition is well-funded and distributing misinfor-mation about reform with the explicit objective to confuse and frighten people. |
