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- A Path Toward Health Care Reform
American Health Care: Still Paying for Past Mistakes
Health Insurance: Increasing Coverage, Reducing Costs
The Importance of Prevention
Let's face it. One of the great success stories of America over the past one hundred years is the incredible advancement of our medical care.
Health Care Issue Briefing
Research has improved our knowledge of the human body and diseases of all kinds, while technology has created tools that we could only dream of just a few years ago. Americans today are living longer, healthier lives because of modern medicine.
At the same time, one of the greatest challenges we face today is ensuring that all Americans can have access to our medical care system. All the advancements in the world mean very little for many of the 49 million Americans who are uninsured today. The difficulties of solving this problem are eclipsed only by the difficulties we will face in the future if we as a nation fail to act soon.
Four important goals:
I believe any changes in our health care system must lead us down a path toward achieving four important goals:
- putting greater control over medical decisions in the hands of patients and doctors, not insurance companies;
- providing transparency of prices for medical services;
- making health insurance policies transportable; and
- tackling the high inflation in our health care costs.
Good news and bad news
The good news about health care is that there is no lack of good ideas out there to tackle some of these challenges.
The bad news is there is no shortage of bad ideas, either. I believe we must take the time during this Congress to talk about all of the ideas, debate their merits, and tackle health care reform in this country. I am open to all ideas, and I will support legislation that moves America towards the four goals I outlined above.
I encourage you to get involved in this debate by contacting me and my staff with any questions, comments, suggestions, or ideas you might have.
A Path Toward Health Care Reform
I am proud to cosponsor legislation that I believe properly focuses our national health care resources. The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act (S. 1019) would overhaul six key areas of our health care system.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would focus their public health campaigns on disease prevention and health promotion.
- All individuals would receive a $2,000 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to purchase health insurance.
- A national health insurance market would be established to allow for the interstate purchase of health plans.
- The bill would strengthen Medicare Advantage, update the fee-for-service portion of Medicare, and establish personal Medicare Retirement Accounts.
- The Medicaid funding formula would be altered to spend more federal dollars on those who are truly needy, and States would be given more freedom to establish innovative ways to assist their Medicaid population.
- S.1019 would establish specialized health courts to reduce unnecessary medical liability costs that contribute to the overall increase in health care costs.
American Health Care: Still Paying for Past Mistakes
The vast majority of Idahoans who have health insurance get that coverage through their employers. You're hired at a company and you are presented with a "benefits package" that the company offers as your only choice for health insurance. You have no options.
How did we get here? Certainly, we don't expect our employers to buy us car insurance or homeowners insurance. We can go down to the local insurance agent, or increasingly we just go online and buy a good quality policy at a competitive price on our own. But when it comes to health insurance we are still paying—literally paying—for one bad mistake committed over 65 years ago.
In the midst of World War II, wage freezes instituted by the government in many industries caused pressure on employers to find a way—other than wages—to compensate employees. Most of them chose health insurance as the benefit to provide.
Over 150 million Americans are provided health insurance through an employer. That represents about 63 percent of all Americans under the age of 65. Currently, the premiums for employer-provided health care plans are non-taxable income. That means that our tax code is biased towards employer-provided health insurance.
However, more and more employers are dropping health coverage for their employees because the costs of a policy are becoming prohibitive. As a result, the number of Americans without health coverage continues to rise and the options to purchase care outside of an employer-employee relationship remain limited. In a world in which an increasing number of people are switching jobs during their working career, it no longer makes sense for the government to push Americans towards employer-provided health insurance.
The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act would address this by changing the tax code to provide all Americans with a tax credit for the purchase of health insurance. Individuals would receive a $2,000 tax credit and families would receive a $5,000 tax credit. This would be a monumental shift in our approach towards health insurance coverage, but it is long overdue.
Health Insurance: Increasing Coverage, Reducing Costs
Currently, health insurance is regulated on the State level. This allows individual States to set as many, or as few, restrictions on coverage as they believe are appropriate. However, excessive health insurance mandates are a significant factor in driving up health care costs.
For example, a single adult in their mid-20’s could pay about $30 a month for health insurance in Idaho Falls, but that same individual would pay at least $250 a month for health insurance in New York City. And this is just a simple cost-comparison that does not factor in the differing benefits offered by the various plans. In some areas of the country people are paying more money for coverage of treatments that they would never use. In other parts of the country, particularly rural areas, individuals have minimal choices for health insurance plans.
The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act would remove the current barriers that prohibit Americans from making interstate health insurance purchases. This would expand the available market for health insurance to give Americans more options to find a health insurance plan that meets their needs. People would have choices that range from cheap plans that cover the basics to plans that are more expensive and offer a variety of benefits.
To ensure that all Americans have access to health insurance, this legislation would also require all States to establish some form of high-risk insurance pool. This provision will help individuals suffering from a pre-existing condition that causes insurance companies to deny them health insurance coverage. High-risk insurance pools are currently being used in 34 States, including Idaho, and they are an important component in providing health insurance to those who are seriously or chronically ill.
The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act would also require all providers who treat Medicare patients to publish their actual and estimated charges for patients. This is an important step that will increase accountability and help reduce overall costs. Knowing what a provider is charging will enable health care consumers to shop around and will ultimately lower costs.
The Importance of Prevention
There is an old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Knowing this to be true, I have always advocated for preventive care when it comes to health care policy. It is no surprise that 75 percent of total health expenditures are for the treatment of chronic diseases that are largely preventable.
The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act would provide for the establishment of national health promotion priorities. The development of a plan to achieve specific health promotion and disease prevention goals will enable federally-funded public health campaigns to be focused on diseases that are easily preventable by lifestyle changes, but still afflict millions of Americans. This legislation will also increase inter-agency coordination to put an end to public health campaigns being duplicated by various federal entities.
In addition to making a coordinated and public push for health promotion, the federal government should also provide incentives for individuals to take actions to improve their health. The Universal Health Care Choice and Access Act would lower Medicare premiums for seniors who adopt healthier lifestyle changes.