Resource: How to think about America's health insurance crisis

"Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. Although America leads the world in spending on health care, it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage. To help policy-makers, elected officials, and others judge and compare proposals to extend coverage to the nation's 43 million uninsured, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies offers a set of guiding principles and a checklist in a new report, Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations....

...the committee offers a set of...principles...for guiding the debate and evaluating various strategies...:

1. Health care coverage should be universal.
2. Health care coverage should be continuous.
3. Health care coverage should be affordable to individuals and families.
4. The health insurance strategy should be affordable and sustainable for society.
5. Health insurance should enhance health and well-being by promoting access to high-quality care that is effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable.

Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies)
See, also: Hidden Costs, Value Lost: Uninsurance in America (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies)
A Shared Destiny: Community Effects of Uninsurance (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies)