A Performance-Based Approach to Universal Health Care

Publication Date: October 2003

Publisher: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Economic and Social Research Institute

Author(s): S.R. Levine; J. Leieux; D.B. Kendall

Research Area: Health

Type: White Paper

Abstract:

David Kendall, Jeff Lemieux and S. Robert Levine have prepared a plan they believe will achieve near universal coverage. While relying heavily on the basic structure of the current system, they propose to use new federally-financed tax credits to make coverage affordable, and they assign state governments major responsibility for ensuring that people actually get coverage. The authors are especially concerned that decision-makers be held accountable for achieving good results. They argue that present efforts to extend coverage have been less than fully successful, in part because success has been measured by ability to follow rules and meet requirements rather than by capacity to achieve desired outcomes.