Human Services News

Families USA:

Most of the nation's largest health care organizations today announced that they have agreed on a proposal that would significantly expand health coverage for America's almost 47 million uninsured, starting immediately with expanded coverage for children in 2007.

Calling itself the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured (HCCU), the group is made up of 16 influential, national organizations that have played leading roles in every federal health policy debate of the last 30 years, often on opposing sides.

Despite their divergent political and ideological views, the groups today committed to immediately and jointly press lawmakers to act on their historic, two-phased consensus proposal.

The agreement includes a balance of private and public initiatives and is the culmination of lengthy meetings among the groups over approximately two years.

It allows the new Congress to begin its work on health coverage from a proposal that already has the agreement of diverse advocates.

"This historic agreement transcends traditional political and ideological boundaries to break the gridlock about expanded health coverage for the uninsured," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "Our unprecedented agreement and coalition should serve as a model for Congress and the President to see that health coverage is expanded to as many people as possible as quickly as possible -- starting with America's children this year."

HCCU participating organizations include AARP, America's Health Insurance Plans, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Catholic Health Association, Families USA, Federation of American Hospitals, Healthcare Leadership Council, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Pfizer, United Health Foundation and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Helping the millions of Americans who do not have health insurance is an issue that needs to transcend politics and partisanship, and that is why we worked together to give Congress a starting point that we can all support."

It calls for a "one-stop shopping" system whereby lowincome families could enroll uninsured children in SCHIP or Medicaid at the same time as they apply for other public programs, like reduced-cost lunches or food stamps.