HOLPAPA - Party Program

Democrats call for "affordable and quality health care," and many advocate an expansion of government intervention in this area. Many Democrats favor national health insurance or universal health care in a variety of forms to address the rising costs of modern health insurance. Some Democrats, such as Representatives John Conyers and John Dingell, have called for a single-payer program of Medicare for All. The Progressive Democrats of America, a group operating inside the Democratic Party, has made single-payer universal health care one of their primary policy goals.^[80]
Some Democratic governors have supported purchasing Canadian drugs, citing lower costs and budget restrictions as a primary incentive. Recognizing that unpaid insurance bills increase costs to the service provider, who passes the cost on to health-care consumers, many Democrats advocate expansion of health insurance coverage.
Policies which most Democrats favor include:

• ending the ability of insurers to drop coverage when people get sick
• ending lifetime caps on benefits and payments insurers provide
• creating a nation-wide insurance exchange across state lines
• dropping the current anti-trust provision for insurance companies
• requiring large businesses to provide employer-based insurance
• mandating coverage for all Americans
• ending insurance companies' ability to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions
• expansion of Medicaid
• providing subsidies for low to moderate income families and small businesses
• allowing children to stay on their parents' coverage longer
• the expansion of Medicare to those aged 55
• importing Canadian drugs and creating a national public insurance option paid for by premiums and co-pays.

Many of these proposals were included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.