WASHINGTON--Giving all Americans access to core health care services by 2012 is just one of the interim recommendations issued last month by the Citizens' Health Care Working Group.

Authorized under the Medicare Modernization Act, the group is comprised of 14 members appointed by the U.S. Comptroller General, and its mission is to foster a nationwide public debate about improving the health care system with an action plan for Congress and the president to consider.

The group's interim recommendations reflect input from more than 20,000 citizens who took part in more than 75 community meetings nationwide or who commented online, and include "a public policy that all Americans have affordable health care" and a "core benefits package for all America" by 2012.

"Across every venue we explored, we heard a common message: Americans should have a health care system where everyone participates, regardless of their financial resources or health status, with benefits that are sufficiently comprehensive to provide access to appropriate, high-quality care without endangering individuals or family financial security," the group's report stated.

The recommendations also include guaranteed financial protection against very high health care costs; development of integrated community health networks; more intensive efforts to improve quality of care and efficiency; and new ways to provide and finance palliative care, hospice and other services so that people living with advanced incurable conditions have access to them in the environment they choose.

The group's final recommendations are to be issued at the end of September and will be sent to Congress for hearings. The public has until Aug. 31 to comment on the interim recommendations, which are posted on the work group's Web site at www.citizenshealthcare.gov

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