Support for a basic level of quality health care at an affordable cost available to all residents; support for the equitable distribution of services, efficient and economical delivery of care, advancement of medical research and technology, and a reasonable total expenditure level for health care.
The League of Women Voters of Idaho believes that a basic level of care should include the prevention of disease, health promotion and education, primary care (including prenatal and reproductive health), acute care, long-term care, and behavioral health care. Dental, vision, and hearing care are also important, particularly for children. The League believes that under any system of health care reform, consumers/patients should be permitted to purchase services or insurance coverage beyond the basic level. (Amended in 2016)
The League of Women Voters of Idaho supports taxes adequate to finance a basic level of health care, provided health care reforms contain effective cost control strategies.
The League believes that efficient and economical delivery of care can be enhanced by such cost control methods as:
- The reduction of administrative costs
- Area planning for the allocation of personnel, facilities, and equipment
- The establishment of maximum levels of public reimbursement to providers
- Malpractice reform
- The use of managed care
- Utilization review of treatment
- Mandatory second opinions before surgery or extensive treatment
- Consumer accountability through deductibles and co-payments
The League supports an equitable distribution of health care services by:
- Allocating medical resources to underserved areas
- Providing for training health care professionals in needed fields of care, standardizing basic levels of service for publicly funded health care programs
- Requiring insurance plans to use community rating instead of experience rating, and
- Establishing insurance pools for small businesses and organizations
The League of Women Voters of Idaho believes that the ability of a patient to pay for services should not be a consideration in the allocation of health care resources. Limited resources should be allocated based on the following criteria considered together: urgency of the medical condition, life expectancy of the patient, expected outcome of the treatment, cost of the procedure, duration of care, the quality of life of the patient after treatment, and the wishes of the patient and the family.
