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WHEREAS, each and every person in the City of Pittsburgh - as well as in the United States - is deserving of robust, high-quality healthcare that provides excellent, patient-oriented outcomes; and
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WHEREAS, in a 2017 study, the American College of Physicians affirmed the clear fact that health insurance reduces mortality and noted that the probability of dying among individuals with health insurance relative to those without health insurance is 0.71 to 0.97, with an estimated 36,000 Americans dying prematurely on a yearly basis because they do not have health insurance; and
WHEREAS, despite spending $3.3 trillion annually on healthcare, which is nearly twice as much as any other high-income country, the U.S. nonetheless receives poor marks on international scoring matrices; and
WHEREAS, drawing on survey data it has collected since 1998 and supplementing that evidence with comparative data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Health Organization, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, The Commonwealth Fund found that when evaluating access, healthcare outcomes, and equity, the U.S. ranks last in an 11-country comparison. Overall, the U.S. ranks last in overall healthcare system performance; and
WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 2016-2025 national health expenditure forecast, national health spending is projected to grow at a yearly average pace of 5.6 percent and at a pace of 4.7 per year per capita; and
WHEREAS, although improvements were made through the Affordable Care Act, many Americans still do not have their vital need for health insurance met in any capacity whatsoever, as more than 27 million Americans lack health insurance, with more than 700,000 of those without coverage residing in Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, more than half of all workers with employer-based plans have deductibles of $1,000 or m...
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