The Claim to Health Care

Major Issues in Health Care

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Availability
Portability
Cost (Who pays? Who gets? Tier systems)

"If I had known I was going to live this long,
I would have taken better care of myself."

Health Plan Considerations

Design innovative, people-oriented health benefit plans and services
that value individual choice and control in accessing health care
Leveragethe power of data and information for physicians and individuals
to improve the quality of care
Simplify access to care by coordinating distinct resources
and services in an effective and seamless way
Provide cost-effective access to high-quality,
convenient health care networks
Create disease management programs
that help people effectively manage chronic conditions
Provide services designed around the consumer
to enable better health care experiences AND...
Promote health education programs and incentive strategies
that increase consumer involvement in treatment and buying decisions.

We've looked at our data, which demonstrates that over 99% of the requests for authorization are approved, anyway. So it costs us over a hundred million dollars a year to say "yes."
-- UnitedHealth Group Chief Medical Officer Dr. Archelle Georgiou

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Changes in HMO policies (recently featured on NBC Nightly News and the Mclaughlin Group)
Organ Transplants (Allocation of a scarce resource - Who gets it?)
Patient Dumping (What if you can't pay?)
Presidential Campaigns (Views on Health Care)