Will Ferniany, Ph.D., is CEO of the UAB Health System, a more than $3 billion/year system that serves patients across Alabama and beyond, and includes the Viva Health Insurance Plan and the 19th-largest hospital in the nation, a safety-net hospital that sees more than a million patient visits a year and many of the most critical in the Southeast.

Ferniany has crafted what he believes is a practical and politically feasible approach to U.S. health care reform.

The keys in Ferniany's solution are vouchers (for choice) and allowing everyone an option to purchase a Medicare solution. The proposal provides freedom of choice for people purchasing insurance; addresses concerns regarding pre-existing conditions; provides competition, thereby reducing the cost and increasing benefits; stabilizes the small and individual markets; ensures fairness by having large risk pools; and eliminates the Medicaid stigma barrier. His proposal does not provide for universal insurance, but it does offer a foundation for such in the event that the federal and/or state government(s) wished to extend benefits to all, through tax credits or subsidies. His plan can be viewed in detail here

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