We need your help to reform the health care system
Until a cure is found, we must pursue legislative progress and improved government programs to better meet the needs of people living with MS. Widely disparate views exist on how to fix the current system. In this context, significant discussions will be focused on how a new system should be developed and what the critical criteria should be in designing significant and meaningful reform.
The National MS Society has developed National Health Care Reform Principles to move us closer to change. These principles are a blueprint for the Society's advocacy efforts on health care reform helping to ensure that any legislation moving forward meets the needs of people living with MS.
Those principles include:
- Providing accessible and affordable health coverage for all Americans
- Eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions
- Limiting out-of-pocket costs including deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance
- Eliminating arbitrary annual and lifetime coverage caps
- Eliminating the Medicare 24-month disability waiting period
- Improving the Medicare program through eliminating the Part D doughnut hole and giving more generous low income subsidies
- Providing access to quality long-term supports and services, especially in-home and community care
- Eliminating disparities in care
- Protecting patient choice and health care provider relationships
- Establishing standards for accessible medical equipment to help minimize barriers for access to care
- Improving the coordination of care and eliminating redundant medical forms and tests with electronic medical records and health information technology
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