America's healthcare system is at a crossroads, faced with rising costs, quality concerns, and a lack of patient control. While I do not serve on any of the committees of jurisdiction regarding the formulation of healthcare reform legislation, I am working hard with my bipartisan colleagues on this important issue. I firmly believe that all Americans must have access to quality, affordable healthcare and have more control over their healthcare costs and decisions. There are many issues that fall under the umbrella of healthcare. I would like to share my thoughts on just a few of those issues. As always, feel free to contact me regarding any specific questions you may have on this or any other issue of interest to you.
Insurance Regulations
Out-dated regulations have contributed to a lack of transparency, choice, and innovation in the healthcare and insurance industries. Consumer choice and competition deliver higher quality and lower prices in other areas of the economy and these market forces can do the same for healthcare. Congress must adjust current laws and regulations to create an environment that will increase market competition among doctors, hospitals, and other medical professionals, broadening consumer choice significantly. For example, most people do not have the opportunity to pick the health plan that is right for them; that decision is taken out of their hands either by the government or by their employer. This one-size-fits-all approach many times causes American families to pay for coverage and benefits they do not want or need, while denying or limiting coverage and benefits that the customer may desire and be willing to pay for. Regulations should be altered to permit insurers to offer consumers a wide range of plans to enable individuals and families to obtain the coverage that best suits their personal preferences and circumstances. Competition through innovation will drive real prices down and quality up.
Health Information Technology
More than a decade ago, business began to use advanced information technology (IT) to improve customer service, communications, and product quality. IT also allowed businesses to save on costs and streamline operations. Embarrassingly, the medical community has fallen woefully behind. Medical communication is still a muddle of paper files, handwritten notes, faxes and phone messages. The result is an estimated 100,000 deaths annually, due to medical errors caused by missing patient data, illegible notes or prescriptions, and incomplete medial records.
Encouraging the growth of health IT means less duplication and confusion, better care, and lower costs for consumers. Health IT can also assist in drug prescribing by reducing hazards from bad handwriting to dangerous drug interactions. Finally, consumer access to their own health records can mean more patient-centered care, starting with better communication between patients and doctors. We can get there. Congress just has to work to let it happen. As a member of the House Health IT Task Force, I am working with my bipartisan colleagues in Congress to bring healthcare delivery into the 21st Century.
Frivolous Lawsuits
The unchecked rise of frivolous lawsuits has had a crippling effect on our healthcare system by making it more expensive and less accessible. Furthermore, patients today are suffering because medical lawsuit abuse is driving our most highly trained doctors out of medicine and causing others to cut back on critically necessary surgical and other medical procedures. I firmly believe we must do everything we can to fix our broken medical liability system. That is why I am an original cosponsor of H.R. 2580, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act (HEALTH Act), introduced by Representative Phil Gingery (R-GA) on June 6, 2007. This comprehensive reform legislation maximizes patients’ awards by allowing courts to ensure an unjust portion of the patient’s recovery is not redirected to an attorney and places reasonable limits on non-economic damages without preempting any state law that imposes greater procedural or substantive protections for healthcare providers and healthcare organizations from liability.
Medicare Payment Cuts to Doctors
Medicare payments for services of physicians and certain non-physician practitioners are made on the basis of a fee schedule. One of the factors used to calculate the formula is the sustainable growth rate (SGR), which is essentially a target for Medicare spending growth for physicians' services. If expenditures exceed the target, the update for a future year is reduced. The SGR system worked well for physicians for the first several years it was in effect. However, beginning in 2002, the formula would have resulted in a negative update, which means a reduced payment to providers for their services. Congress has overrode these cuts since 2003 by passing temporary patches to the SGR system.
Every year I have served in the House, I have consistently supported efforts to prevent cuts to physicians’ payments. Physicians are the foundation of our nation’s healthcare system. The lack of predictability in Medicare payments is unfair to physicians and only serves to exacerbate the problem of access for Medicare beneficiaries. A stable and predictable payment law for physician service delivery is critical to preserving a patient centered care system. Therefore, I also firmly support the elimination of the SGR and the establishment of an equitable payment system for our healthcare providers.
Making the Health Insurance Market More Competitive for Small Business
I support the creation of association health plans (AHPs) to allow small businesses to band together through associations to purchase health care for their employees and their families. I support AHPs because I believe they help decrease the number of uninsured and ease the burden on small businesses. In fact, over 51% of the uninsured in our country are small business owners, their employees, and dependents. As a former small business owner myself, I understand how difficult it is for small businesses to offer affordable and accessible health coverage for their employees. In many states, small business owners have only one or two insurance companies from which to choose a plan to offer their employees – an atmosphere that produces high, non-competitive prices. Small business is essential to our nation’s economy and AHPs will give them the same accessibility, affordability and choice in the health-care marketplace that big business and labor unions, which are exempt from state mandates, now enjoy.
Mental Health Parity
I support providing mental health parity for group health insurance plans. However, I did not vote in favor of mental health parity (H.R. 1424) legislation that was considered in the House due to several concerns I had with the bill, chief among them being a mandate for insurers to cover a broad variety of mental health conditions of which many are considered by the psychiatric community to have dubious value. As a proponent of mental health parity, I support S. 558, the Senate version of mental health parity legislation sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy. The Senate version represents a carefully negotiated agreement among industry groups, insurers and mental health advocates. It is my hope that the House Democratic leadership will concede to their Senate counterparts so that the carefully negotiated bipartisan Senate bill may be signed into law as quickly as possible
Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act
With the advent of technologies that are able to decipher the sequence of the human genome, concern has arisen as to how this information will be put to use. While scientists have been able to make great strides in research related to genetic diseases, steps should be taken to ensure that no human is discriminated against based on information in their personal genetic make-up. If a scientist could determine an individual’s predisposition to a disease, a healthcare company could just as easily utilize that information to deny healthcare coverage.
For this reason, I was proud to be an original cosponsor of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act, which eliminates the possible misuse of genetic information by employers and health insurance companies to discriminate against those affected by genetic abnormalities. With the growing prevalence in the field of genetic research, I feel this legislation is necessary to prevent even the possibility of such discrimination. This legislation was signed into law on May 21, 2008.
Rep. Drake is a Member of the following Healthcare related Congressional working groups:
House Nursing Caucus
Congressional Health Information Technology Task Force
House Traumatic Brain Injury Task Force
House Rural Healthcare Coalition
House Long-Term Care Caucus
Bipartisan Cerebral Palsy Caucus
Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus
Bipartisan, Bicameral Alzheimer’s Disease Congressional Task Force
Coalition on Autism Research and Education
Congressional Caucus on Infant Health & Safety
Congressional Children’s Healthcare Caucus
Congressional Cystic Fibrosis Caucus
Congressional Global Health Caucus
Congressional Hearing Health Caucus
Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition
Congressional Mental Health Caucus
Congressional Multiple Sclerosis Caucus
Congressional Oral Health Caucus
Congressional Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Caucus
Generic Drug Equity Caucus
House Cancer Caucus
