Map to better U.S. health care: centralize, organize

Experts laid out a health care road map for U.S. presidential candidates on Thursday, recommending more organized care, with an emphasis on overall health as opposed to expensive interventions.

They said it will be essential to ensure that everyone in the United States has health insurance and said the most pragmatic way to achieve this would be a combination of federal, state, employer and private coverage.

And the country needs to train more primary care physicians and move away from expensive, specialized medicine, the panel appointed by the non-profit Commonwealth Fund recommended.

The Fund, which commissions research on health care and advocates for universal coverage, issued a scorecard in October 2006 that gave the United States a rating of 66 out of a possible 100 on 37 health indicators such as premature death and infant mortality.

Earlier this week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development noted that Americans spend far more than any other country on health care at $6,401 per person per year in 2005, compared to the OECD average of $2,759.

Most of the 2008 presidential candidates have offered some kind of health care proposal, with Democrats mostly calling for expansions of government insurance augmented by the private sector and Republicans advocating a market-based approach.