The 100% Campaign: Ensuring Healthcare Access and Coverage for All
 The people of Ascension Health have committed to providing care and support to all persons, particularly those who are poor and vulnerable. As part of our Strategic Direction, Ascension Health is committed to achieving a goal of Healthcare That Leaves No One Behind by 2020. We are striving for 100% access and 100% coverage for all.
At Ascension Health, we are proud of the work we are doing to ensure our patients receive the care they need. In fact, approximately every 60 seconds last year a new uninsured person received services at one of our hospitals or related healthcare facilities.
But we cannot solve the problem of the uninsured and underinsured alone.
To achieve our goal of 100% access and 100% coverage, we must change our nation’s healthcare policy. And you can help make it happen. We face an exciting challenge in 2008, as health reform plans are being discussed on a national level, at the state level and locally. The 100% Campaign is the first step to influence healthcare policy to achieve 100% access and 100% coverage.
Guiding Features
We believe that a redesigned healthcare delivery system must achieve 100% access with a broad commitment to cost-effective, clinically excellent healthcare throughout the continuum of services. All must be covered, and the delivery system must be redesigned.
As part of this effort, we have developed a set of Guiding Features of a reformed healthcare policy. These Guiding Features are designed to help shape the future of healthcare in the United States. As you explore information on this site, feel free to share information with your friends and family – help foster the dialogue around the challenges we face in achieving access and coverage for all.
Click on a Guiding Feature in the image above,
or simply scroll down, to learn more about our Guiding Features.
We believe that a redesigned healthcare delivery system must achieve 100% access with a broad commitment to cost-effective, clinically excellent healthcare throughout the continuum of services. All must be covered, and the delivery system must be redesigned.
Everyone must receive the quality care needed to stay healthy and to improve when they are sick. There must be a shared responsibility for preventive and primary care. The system should be simple to navigate, with someone who cares available for help and advice when needed. Doctors and caregivers should be key redesign partners. Patients should be safe and receive the best care for the dollar.
We need to demand a delivery system that helps keep you well with preventive medicine, and which makes sure that when you’re sick, the doctors and technology are there without rationing or undue waits.
The question we must ask is: Will the healthcare system be redesigned so that everyone can easily get clinically excellent healthcare?
We must ensure that any plan or proposal achieves 100% coverage. Why must we have 100 percent coverage? Without 100% coverage, there are just too many circumstances in which people can fall through the cracks. The loss of a job; a decision to work part-time; a divorce; a decision to go to school; a pre-existing condition — all of us need to know that whatever life deals us or whatever opportunities arise, we and our children will be covered.
Perhaps the goal of coverage for all must be reached in steps. But the destination of coverage for all must be clearly stated and understood.
We must answer the question: Will anyone be left behind?
100% coverage can’t simply mean that if you are run over by a truck or have a heart attack, the emergency room won’t turn you away. We cannot have a two-tiered health system where those who pay get adequate insurance coverage and those who are unable to pay get inadequate coverage. We can’t have a system where vaccines and other preventive care are considered optional — where doctor’s visits and hospitalization are considered a frill — where coverage for prescription drugs are a nice-to-have, but not a must-have.
The real question, we believe, is how much, in each of these categories, a healthcare package provides. Our belief is that each of us deserves a package comparable to the standard for benefit plans within our community. In many communities, the standard private insurance plan includes a reasonable deductible, co-insurance and a variety of standard benefits including hospitalization and doctor visits without limits, prescription drug coverage, and adequate behavioral health coverage. No individual should fear the fine print in their benefit package or learn they do not have adequate coverage only after sickness strikes.
We must be able to answer the question: Is the coverage decent?
Going back to our founders’ mission, we believe that special attention must be paid to vulnerable populations and to coverage gaps: to the poor, those with special needs, and children who cannot advocate for themselves.
We must be able to answer the question: Are the vulnerable covered?
We need to look at the role of insurance in health reform. Everyone must be eligible for insurance coverage, and everyone must be included. Federal and state regulations must be changed to eliminate the pre-existing condition clauses that keep people in need off the insurance roles by charging expensive premiums, or simply denying them coverage up front. It’s not right that our healthcare system would be least accessible to the people most likely to need it. But that’s the way things stand now. You may know cancer survivors, people with diabetes, heart patients, accident victims, or people who are chronically ill who are essentially uninsurable, or trapped in the same job and coverage they have now.
We must be able to answer the questions: Can I get insurance? Can I afford my plan?
To keep the system solvent, we need to consider balancing the expense of covering those with less impressive health histories, with requirements that employers offer, or individuals purchase, insurance. In Massachusetts, a Democratic legislature and a Republican governor collaborated on a plan that requires that individuals have insurance and penalizes businesses that do not provide it. It’s not the only idea, but it’s a good one, and here’s why: the participation of the younger, healthier individuals in the insurance pool helps keep the cost of premiums down for all of us, and protects us from having to pay their bills when they get sick or are injured unexpectedly.
And, since every sector benefits, every sector should carry part of the costs: businesses, state governments, the federal government, insurers, individuals, and healthcare providers. We may need to think creatively about how to best re-allocate current government healthcare spending; we surely need to consider the way tax incentives affect the behavior of both employees and employers when it comes time to purchase an insurance plan.
We must be able to answer the question: Will my plan be there tomorrow?
 Here we have included information about the issues surrounding healthcare in 2008.
And you can help make change happen. We ask you to join us in Ascension Health’s 100% Campaign: Ensuring Healthcare Access and Coverage for All. As part of this effort, we have developed a set of key questions to ask of about the various healthcare reform plans being discussed today. These questions include:
- Does the plan encourage redesigning the delivery system to improve health outcomes and achieve a one-tier system?
- Does the plan aim for 100% coverage for all?
- Is the proposed coverage adequate and affordable for all? Is the benefit package similar to what others in the community have?
- Does it address all vulnerable/safety net populations? What is the impact on existing safety net services to the vulnerable?
- Does the plan include adequate insurance reforms (e.g., is insurance available, affordable, and sustainable)?
- Is the plan funded in an adequate, sustainable fashion with the cost shared by multiple parties?
- Does the plan include a mechanism to require coverage?
If you would like more information about the 100% Campaign: Ensuring Healthcare Access and Coverage for All, please contact Ascension Health’s Advocacy staff.
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