Martin O'Malley (Health Policy)

O'Malley's Health Policy (section page)

Affordability

• Encourage states to adopt comprehensive payment reform and consider options like hospital global budgeting, patient-centered medical homes, and accountable care organizations (MOW-HC)
  • Supports an "all-payer" system (PBS)
• Improve the value of Medicare (MOW-HC)
  • Launch a "Medicare Essential" program to provide comprehensive benefits (hospital, physician, prescription drug, supplemental coverage) in one opt-in plan
• Increase support for primary care and promote widespread adoption of medical homes (MOW-HC)
• Require clarity in healthcare billing and fairness for the uninsured (MOW-HC)
• Enforce anti-trust law to counter dramatic price increases (MOW-HC)
• Fight against corporate tax inversions (MOW-HC)
• Ban price gouging for prescription drugs (MOW-HC)
• Use the government's purchasing power to ensure reasonable drug prices (MOW-HC)
• Invest in health information exchanges (MOW-HC)
• Expand patients' access to their own health data (MOW-HC)
• Prioritize data security in the transition to electronic medical records (MOW-HC)

Expanded Access to Care

• Build on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (MOW-HC)
  • Ensure access to affordable healthcare for immigrants
  • Work with states to close the "coverage gap"
  • Extend access for working families and their children
  • Treat multi-employer and high-cost plans fairly
  • Address high deductibles by covering critical services
• Support universal access to reproductive care (MOW-HC)
  • Promote universal access to prenatal care and family planning
  • Believes abortions should be legal without any intrusion or interference from the government (OTI)
• Set a goal for universal access to primary, behavioral, and oral health care, supported by renewed investment in community health centers (MOW-HC)
• Eradicate lead poisoning by restoring funding for state programs and creating an interagency task force to find solutions to keep children healthy (MOW-HC)
• Reduce diseases and premature deaths caused by air pollution (MOW-HC)
• Mobilize communities to address the cause of health disparities (MOW-HC)
• Expand the National Health Service Corps and Area Health Education Centers and invest in the next generation of the health care workforce (MOW-HC)
• Task the Department of Health and Human Services with developing the basis for states, health systems, and health care providers for progress in health equity (MOW-HC)

Cures and Healthier Lives

• Invest in NIH and FDA research (MOW-HC)
• Support promising therapies at every step of development (MOW-HC)
• Release clinical trial data to advance scientific discovery (MOW-HC)
• Invest in early childhood health (MOW-HC)
  • Provide stable funding for the ACA's Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program
• Build on the ACA (MOW-HC)
  • Protect the Prevention and Public Health Fund
• Renew focus on preventing and treating infectious diseases (MOW-HC)
  • Set goals for disease prevalence for diseases like HIV, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis
• Reauthorize and fully fund the Older Americans Act (MOW-HC)
• Require Medicare and Medicaid programs to create a consistent set of incentives to encourage community-based care (MOW-HC)
• Encourage physicians to speak with their patients regarding end of life care and support the implementation of patient wishes (MOW-HC)

Mental Health and Addiction

• Invest in strong community health systems (MOW-HC)
• Integrate behavioral health and physical health care (MOW-HC)
  • Introduce new incentives through Medicare and Medicaid to increase ease of access to behavioral health care
• Stop the criminalization of mental illness (MOW-HC)