CED Endorses the Healthy Americans Act

WASHINGTON, June 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Committee for Economic Development, for 67 years a leading business group that pursues public policy in the national interest, today publicly endorsed the Healthy Americans Act (S. 334), introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Robert F. Bennett (R-UT).

"The Healthy Americans Act is the only health-care reform proposal under consideration that will expand coverage while controlling costs over time. It is self-financing within the first year of implementation - a stunning achievement. Additionally, this bill has bipartisan support." said Charles Kolb, President of CED.

"Health-care reform is a moral and economic priority. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize our current system, which is a relic of the 1940s. The decision on reform is increasingly between bold action versus incremental improvement. CED endorses the bold action contained in the Healthy Americans Act, to strengthen private sector competition in healthcare while improving government oversight," said Joseph Kasputys, CED Co-Chair, and Founder & Chairman of IHS Global Insight.

Business leaders nation-wide are concerned with the economic impact of high health-care costs and poor value for the money we spend. High and rising health-care costs threaten the nation's prosperity, and the well-being of its people. If costs continue growing at today's rate, no one's coverage is secure. CED's report, Quality, Affordable Health Care for All, found that the U.S. employer-based health-insurance system is broken.

"We must innovate for a new, flexible workforce that encourages individuals to move easily between jobs and start their own businesses without the penalty of losing health-care coverage. Every American should have access to the same competing choices regardless of their employment status," said Bowman Cutter, CED Trustee, former CED Co-Chair, and Managing Director of Warburg Pincus.

"Our best health-care insurers and providers, such as Mayo, Kaiser, and Intermountain, must be allowed to bring their innovations in cost reduction and quality improvement to all parts of the country. That would solve our health-care problems by saving enough money to pay for universal coverage. This process happens naturally in the rest of our economy through fair, intense competition on a level playing field, and without a government owned competitor in the market. The same thing can happen in health-care. The Healthy Americans Act creates such a market." said Bill Lewis, CED Trustee and Founding Director of the McKinsey Global Institute.

For more information on CED's work on health-care reform, please visit www.ced.org.

CED is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of more than 200 business leaders and university presidents. Since 1942, its research and policy programs have addressed many of the nation's most pressing economic and social issues, including education reform, workforce competitiveness, campaign finance, health-care, and global trade and finance. CED promotes policies to produce increased productivity and living standards, greater and more equal opportunity for every citizen, and an improved quality of life for all.

    Contact: Morgan Broman (202)-296-5860 ext. 14
    Morgan.Broman@ced.org 

SOURCE The Committee for Economic Development

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