Health Care
We have an urgent and moral obligation to change the health care system in this country so that every American has affordable access to quality health care and so that we can relieve our families, small businesses, and economy from the catastrophic impacts of high health care costs. We must face this problem head-on and start working towards solving it this year.
Every single person knows someone who has been negatively affected by our broken health care system. Approximately 800,000 Coloradans are uninsured. More than 70% of the uninsured in this country are in working families. American consumers pay among highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, and health care costs have gone up 80% in the last decade alone.
I have heard from Coloradans all around the state about how the high cost of health care has affected them. From a patient in Parker who paid $122,000 for a variety of tests and procedures only to find that he was in perfect health. And who, despite his health, is now being denied insurance coverage because the tests took place at all. To the small business owners in Greeley who have paid $36,000 out of pocket to cover their uninsured daughter.
The problem touches everyone, even those who are happy with their current health care plan and doctor, because the cost of health care is impairing our economic recovery and our ability to compete globally. The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, which was equal to about 16.2 percent of our GDP. And, according to the Congressional Budget Office, health care spending as a portion of our GDP will double again by 2035. The Congressional Budget Office also predicts that federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid will increase to 19% of our GDP by 2082.
There are few policy areas that are more complicated or where the stakeholders are more entrenched. Those involved in the health care debates often take an all or nothing approach, arguing that government run health care is the only solution or that the status quo is the only way they can stay in business.
We owe it to today’s families and to the next generation to find a fiscally responsible way to make quality health care affordable and accessible. That is why I support President Obama's efforts to bring individuals, medical providers, insurance companies, and employers to the same table to achieve a consensus on how we are going to approach this enormous problem.
Although I am open to considering a number of options, I believe that we must move forward guided by a few basic principles:
- If you like your current health insurance and your current doctor, then you should be able to keep them.
- Patients should be able to pick their health insurance and doctor.
- We must control the dramatic increases in health care costs that are crippling families and small businesses.
- People should be able to keep their insurance when they change jobs and health insurance companies should be prohibited from denying care based on preexisting conditions.
When I travel to rural communities, I consistently hear about how hard it is for people to find quality health care. A man in Durango told me that he has even had trouble finding a primary care doctor because of low Medicare reimbursement rates received by rural clinics. I believe that any health care discussion must include positive steps to make sure we get health care to rural communities. The system we have in place for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements puts small towns and rural communities at a disadvantage when it comes to meeting their health care needs. That is why I offered legislation that would reserve funds to address inequities in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements that impede rural access to primary care, outpatient services, and hospitals.
There is a better way to go forward. It is up to us to think innovatively and creatively and find a workable solution to this problem. Our families, small businesses, and state and local governments cannot endure even one more decade like the last. We must do better.
