The future of health care is expected to be a hotly contested issue in the upcoming presidential debates and the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. UnitedHealth Group has released "The Path Forward to a Next-Generation Health System," which combines the strengths of the private and public sectors to achieve four objectives.

Universal coverage

The impact of COVID-19 and resulting economic instability has led to an increase in the number of uninsured individuals. As many as 35 million people may need health insurance coverage. UnitedHealth supports strengthening and expanding existing options to cover more than 28 million uninsured individuals through these steps:

• Expand and strengthen the Medicaid program to cover more than nine million additional individuals.
• Modernize exchanges to expand coverage to more than nine million more people.
• Enable more choice in the individual market to cover nearly 10 million additional individuals.

Improve affordability

The per-person cost of health care is at the highest level in history, exceeding an average of $11,000 annually. UnitedHealth proposes reducing health-care cost increase trends nearer to the general inflation rate to save the government $1.5 trillion.