There are key principles to implement in any health insurance reform:

1. Universal coverage:

   Every citizen should be eligible to receive health insurance coverage with no penalty for pre-existing conditions.

   Health insurance should be mandatory, since no one is denied life saving emergency care. For those who are too poor to pay their share, the State and Federal governments must provide subsidies.

2. Independence from employers:

   The citizen is already forced into too great a dependence on employers for life's needs such as health care and retirement.

   Therefore, there should be no mandate on large companies to provide health care. Furthermore, labor should be facilitated in creating health-insurance cooperatives which they can negotiate to have their employers contribute to.

3. No taxation of health insurance benefits:

   The right to stay alive is the most fundamental right our governments are created to protect. Health care is necessary to protect this right. Because it is universal to all human beings, it should not be taxed as a part of income. Furthermore, the standard exemption should not be arbitrary, but should be based on the minimal annual cost of staying alive in America --- health care costs, food, and housing costs.

4. A Public health insurance program should funded through beneficiary payments, not general taxes:

   It is important that a public health insurance program should remain just that --- a sharing of risk over the entire population of beneficiaries, not a government entitlement. For this reason, its costs should be entirely covered by beneficiary payments, every year of its operation; any shortfalls must be covered by rate increases the following year, and any surpluses by rate reductions. General taxes may be used to subsidize the payments of those too poor to cover their share, but should not be used to cover the program as a whole.

5. Simplicity of operation for patients and doctors:

   One of the banes of the current health care system is the complexity of red tape imposed on both patients and doctors and health care providers caused by insurance companies, as well as Medicare. This complexity hinders the delivery of timely care and imposes great burdens of paperwork on sick patients and their care providers. A top priority in the mechanics of any legislation is that it minimize the complexity of its use.