Every American citizen and legal resident will receive a Health Security Card. Once you get your card, you can never lose your health coverage -- no matter what. If you get sick, you're covered. If you change jobs, you're covered. If you lose your job, you're covered. If you move, you're covered. If you have the courage to start a small business, you're covered.
Your Health Security card guarantees you a comprehensive package of benefits that can never be taken away. The package is as comprehensive as the ones that many Fortune 500 companies offer their employees. And in critical ways -- like paying for preventive care and prescription drugs -- the package gives you more than big companies provide today.
You will be able to choose your doctor. Everyone will have a choice of health plans. You'll be able to follow your doctors and nurses into a traditional fee-for-service plan, join a network of doctors and hospitals, or join an HMO. Your boss or insurance company won't decide how or where or from whom you get your care -- you will.
Almost everybody will be able to sign up for a health plan at work, like you do today. You'll get brochures that give you easy-to-understand information on several health plans -- which doctors and hospitals are included, an evaluation of the quality of care, a consumer satisfaction survey, and prices. If you're self-employed or unemployed, you can sign up at your area health alliance, which will be run by consumers and businesses and bargain for affordable health care for you.
The federal government will set up a national health board -- a board of directors to set standards and make sure you get the comprehensive benefits and quality care you deserve. State governments will set up health alliances give consumers and small businesses the power to buy affordable care; and the businesses with 5,000 or more employees will be allowed to operate as "corporate alliances."
Insurance companies will be required to use a single claim form to replace the thousands of different forms they have today. So when you get sick, you won't be buried in forms -- and neither will your nurse, your doctor or your hospital.