FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Path Toward Bipartisan Reform

For Immediate Release       October 9, 2008
For Additional Information contact:
Sarah Albertson, CodeBlueNow!, 206-217-9430
info@codebluenow.org

A Path Toward BiPartisan Reform

(Seattle, WA):  On the eve of the economic meltdown, CodeBlueNow!, a national nonpartisan nonprofit released its Voters’ Health Care Platform, citing extensive nonpartisan support for key elements of a reformed health care system.   The Town Meeting about the Platform with a conversation between two former Governors on how to reach bipartisan reform is now available on the CodeBlueNow! website, http://www.codebluenow.org.

The Platform is based on five years of grassroots research across the country as well as having statistically valid data from market research surveys.  The research forms the basis of the Platform and shows the majority of Americans would support coverage for everyone, they would retain an employer-based system rather than supporting government run, tax-funded reform. By the same margin, they also reject health care as a purely individual responsibility like automobile insurance.

“The economic meltdown changes the reform conversation,” indicates Kathleen O’Connor, Founder and CEO of CodeBlueNow! “The government run, tax based single-payer option is essentially dead given the Wall Street economic bailout.  We also think there would be few defenders now of a marketplace-based approach to health care reform. This leaves us with the opportunity to have a new conversation, since the two extreme ends of the reform spectrum are no longer viable alternatives.”

O’Connor indicates there are broad areas of consensus on health care reform:  

• Employer-based vs. tax-based system
• Prevention over high tech cures
• Shared financial responsibility of employers, employee and government
• Coverage for everyone
• Basic benefit package
• Include CAM providers in basic benefit package
• Greater public participation in oversight and management
• Incentives for healthy outcomes

“These things are not impossible to achieve,” O’Connor observes. “It has just been hard to have a cordial, problem solving conversation since so many groups on the left and on the right have been demonizing each other for years rather than focusing on solving a problem. Now that these two extremes are dead, we have more than half a chance of having a meaningful conversation and forging ahead and build consensus on some critical areas before the system implodes from covering even more uninsured.”

A complete copy of the Voters Health Care Platform can be found at:  http://www.codebluenow.org/Voters%20Health%20Care%20Platform.pdf
     

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CodeBlueNow! is a national nonpartisan nonprofit based in Seattle to reform the health care system by engaging the public with a consensus building approach.

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