The Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, created by Congress to assess the public’s views on the U.S. healthcare system, has presented recommendations to Congress and President Bush that call for a core set of health benefits and services based on best practices to be developed and made available to all Americans by 2012.
The bipartisan group presented its recommendations after 18 months of public meetings across the country in which thousands of Americans offered opinions on how to improve the nation’s health care. Many who participated said they particularly were concerned with what seemed to be arbitrary exclusion of services or benefits from their health coverage. The working group recommended that a public/private entity be established to identify core benefits that are evidence-based and reflect advances in medical research and practice. Additional recommendations suggested the expansion of community health networks that would ensure more Americans have a “medical home” and stepped up efforts to improve quality and efficiency of care.
