NO WAITING FOR PIES-IN-THE-SKY: START REFORM NOW!

 A Quick Summary--What We Can Do RIGHT NOW by thinking Independently in Congress

--  Remove New Deal era regulatory barriers to broadening insurance pools beyond state lines.

-- Establish short term "portability support" beyond COBRA to help workers keep their insurance plans (and current monthly rates) even after changes in employment. 

-- Improve citizen access, price fairness and customer service quality by opening up the insurance market to more competition from innovative for-profit, not-for-profit, non-profit and community group health insurance entrepreneurs: 

1. First, let's empower. endow and subsidize a world-class, public servant operated health care insurance option: (It will be a newly imagined, federally supported and not-for-profit Medicare-like insurance option that will compete on price and service quality in the open insurance market). 
2. Second go even further in increasing competition in the marketplace by by allowing innovative non-profit health insurance products into the business. A whole array of tailored health insurance products could emerge that would enable innovators in community groups, Non-Governmental-Organizations (non-profits), and faith-based organizations to broaden the options we have to choose from. (Of course, the same ACA and other standards that apply to the current for-profit market would apply to these new market entrants.)

-- By the end of 2022, let's realign existing Health & Human Services resources toward  facilitating (and subsidizing) universal access to Basic Wellness Care (clinic-based check-ups, immunizations and flu-shots, fundamental diet and exercise counseling, first-step mental health counseling, clinic-based addiction recovery, etc.) and basic on-line healthy living education tools.  With federal support and smart alignment of provider, clinic and nursing resources -- we can see that every American can access these basic, first-step quality of life services at no cost through their workplaces, schools, community centers, local or state governments, faith-based institutions, etc.  This affordable initiative on preventative and basic health care service and information alone will take significant pressure off the health care infrastructure as it grapples with making sure Americans continue to have access to affordable care for longer-term, more critical health concerns.

-- Significantly bolster federal support of the community health clinics that today serve millions of still-uninsured and improperly-insured Americans (especially in rural and small-city communities such as ours). This is a critical interim step we must take until we can finally come together to answer the challenge of comprehensive Health Care insurance reform.

--  Finally, enough with the heartfelt tributes to our health care heroes in the post-Covid world without commitments to real future support that this noble profession desperately needs right now from industry and governments. There are things we can get done on Day One of the next Congress. For example, let’s see that the federal government works with the health care industry and health care workers unions to establish ways to better support the future Professional Safety, Career-Development & Satisfaction, and the Quality of Workplace Life for both front-line health care providers and the non-medical essential staff members who support them.

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