One of the most glaring shortcomings of the current social contract is the link between health care and employment status. Creating a citizen-based social contract will require remaking our health care system so it becomes sustainable and accessible, one where health care benefits are portable and tied to the individual, rather than to his or her place of employment. Such a system can be built upon the essential pillars of personal responsibility and shared responsibility. Mandates to buy insurance and subsidies to help people afford to do so will be balanced with the creation of an insurance marketplace that is affordable and a delivery system that works in terms of both cost and quality.
The Next Social Contract Initiative aims to reinvent American social policy for the twenty-first century. Through a program of research and public education, the initiative will explore the origins of our modern social contract, articulate the guiding principles for constructing a new contract, and advance a set of promising policy reforms.
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