In today's prepaid health care market, these minimal standard are often inadequate. I believe that we need to establish a federal health quality advisory committee. This committee, composed of experts, would set voluntary national goals for improving our health care quality and yearly determine how close we are as a nation to achieving these goals. The committee would also examine the obstacles to improving the quality of our health care system and help sort out the problems faced by health care purchasers as we seek to purchase value. An important and necessary role for the federal government is to foster a competitive marketplace by ensuring that sufficient and similar information about a product is available to consumers.
Consumers can then make choices according to their own personal preferences and needs.
Another role for the federal government is to ensure fairness. Managed care has attempted to improve and narrow emergency room utilization by requiring prior authorization approval before emergency services can be obtained. We want to encourage the proper use of an emergency room. I believe it should be extended to all Americans. In addition, we need to restore the trust between a patient and their health care professional.