PETITION FOR AMERICASCARE™: COMMUNITY-CONTROLLED HEALTHCARE
To: The United States Congress, State Legislatures, Governors, and Other Appropriate Federal, State, and Local Officials
From: We the People
We, the undersigned, petition our elected representatives to begin the legislative and regulatory process necessary to establish AmericasCare™—a Community-Controlled Healthcare system designed to use the healthcare dollars Americans are already spending more efficiently while putting control of those dollars back into the hands of the communities they serve.
America spent approximately $5.3 trillion on healthcare in 2024—more than $15,000 for every person in the country.
America does not have a shortage of healthcare dollars.
WE HAVE A SYSTEM PROBLEM.
We believe America can provide comprehensive healthcare while reducing unnecessary administrative costs, duplicative payment systems, excessive pharmaceutical costs, billing complexity, waste, fraud, and abuse.
AmericasCare™ would replace today's fragmented healthcare financing structure with 435 locally controlled Community Healthcare Trusts connected through nationwide risk sharing.
Insurance companies and government healthcare programs already spread healthcare risk across millions of people.
AMERICASCARE™ KEEPS THAT PROVEN PRINCIPLE—WE SIMPLY CHANGE WHO CONTROLS THE MONEY AND THE PROCESS.
WE PETITION FOR A HEALTHCARE SYSTEM BUILT ON THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:
• COMMUNITY CONTROL — Healthcare dollars should be managed through locally controlled Community Healthcare Trusts with strong transparency, independent auditing, fiduciary safeguards, conflict-of-interest protections, and public accountability.
• NATIONWIDE RISK SHARING — The 435 Community Healthcare Trusts should share healthcare risk nationally so that no individual community is financially devastated by unusually high healthcare needs.
• COMPREHENSIVE HEALTHCARE — Covered care should include doctor and specialist care, hospitals, surgery, emergency care, prescription medications, mental and behavioral healthcare, dental, vision, hearing, rehabilitation, preventive care, ambulance transportation, home healthcare, and long-term care.
• NO DEDUCTIBLES OR COPAYS FOR COVERED CARE — Americans should not have to delay necessary healthcare because they cannot afford to use the healthcare coverage they are already paying for.
• PATIENT AND PROVIDER CONTROL OF MEDICAL DECISIONS — Community trustees should manage healthcare funds. They should NOT make individual medical decisions. Medical decisions should remain between patients and qualified healthcare professionals, subject to appropriate medical standards, verification, and an independent appeals process.
• PROMPT PAYMENT TO HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS — Verified healthcare bills should be paid promptly through a simplified payment system, reducing billing complexity, collections, payment disputes, bad debt, and unnecessary administrative expense.
• PRESCRIPTION DRUG NEGOTIATION — The Community Healthcare Trusts should be able to combine their nationwide purchasing power to negotiate prescription drug prices on behalf of the American people.
• PROTECTION FROM MEDICAL DEBT AND MEDICAL-RELATED BANKRUPTCY — Receiving necessary healthcare should not financially destroy an American family.
• LONG-TERM CARE WITHOUT FORCED IMPOVERISHMENT — Long-term care is healthcare. AmericasCare™ should provide qualified long-term care without requiring Americans to first impoverish themselves to receive care.
• PROTECTION OF FAMILY ASSETS — AmericasCare™ long-term-care coverage should not require Medicaid-style asset spend-down, a five-year Medicaid transfer look-back, or Medicaid estate recovery for long-term care paid through AmericasCare™.
• CONSOLIDATION OF DUPLICATIVE MEDICAL-PAYMENT SYSTEMS — Where appropriate, medical-payment responsibilities currently spread across health insurance, workers' compensation, automobile insurance, homeowners insurance, business liability insurance, and other systems should be consolidated into AmericasCare™.
• PROTECTION AGAINST WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE — Healthcare payments should be subject to verification, auditing, transparency, and strong payment-integrity controls.
• COMMUNITY CONTROL OF SAVINGS — After healthcare obligations and appropriate reserves are protected, each Community Healthcare Trust should be able to independently—or collectively with other trusts—determine how eligible savings are used for the benefit of the people they serve.
Potential uses could include strengthening reserves, reducing future healthcare costs, investing eligible funds, loaning qualified funds back into our communities through home or automobile loans, supporting community health programs, or returning a portion of the savings directly to the people.
IT'S OUR MONEY.
IT'S OUR COMMUNITY.
IT'S OUR DECISION.
OUR POSITION
AmericasCare™ is NOT a single-payer, government-run healthcare plan designed to replace today's insurance bureaucracy with another massive government bureaucracy.
It is Community-Controlled Healthcare.
We call upon our elected representatives to begin the serious legislative work necessary to transition eligible healthcare funding into a transparent, accountable, community-controlled system while protecting patients, healthcare providers, existing benefits during the transition, and the financial stability of the healthcare system.
We recognize that a transformation of this magnitude cannot happen overnight.
But complexity is not an excuse for doing nothing.
We therefore demand that Congress, state legislatures, governors, and other appropriate public officials begin the legislative and regulatory process necessary to establish AmericasCare™ and Community Healthcare Trusts across America.
The American people are already paying for healthcare.
NOW WE EXPECT OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES TO HELP BUILD A HEALTHCARE SYSTEM THAT WORKS FOR THE PEOPLE PAYING FOR IT.
MORE CARE with LESS WASTE.
SUPPORT POLICY NOT POLITICIANS.
We the People respectfully demand action.
Signed,
WE THE PEOPLE