Fixing our Broken Health Care System
Over the years I've been involved in health care, I have heard from countless Rhode Islanders struggling to pay for their care, and fearful of losing coverage on which they and their families depend. I've met nurses frustrated and heartbroken that they must spend so much time on paperwork, and so little time caring for patients. I've listened to doctors, bitter and angry at the intrusion of the insurance industry into their medical decisions. And I've talked with families whose lives and health were shaken by terrifying medical errors - misplaced paperwork, mistaken diagnoses - that were totally avoidable.
I believe that we can and must reform the underlying mechanisms of our health care system, and expand access to health insurance for all Americans. To this end, the first three bills I introduced as a U.S. Senator focused on making the health care system work more efficiently and provide better-quality care - critically important changes that I believe will help speed the way to the broader health care reform our country needs.
The Quality Reform Expansion and Savings Act of 2007 (S.1451) provides grants to local organizations like the Rhode Island Quality Institute, which I founded when I was Rhode Island's Attorney General, that are looking into ways in which high-quality care can actually lower the overall cost. The National Health Information Technology and Privacy Advancement Act of 2007 (S.1455) creates a national health information technology agency to develop private electronic health records that will improve care coordination, prevent medical errors, avoid duplication and waste, and reduce cost. I'm honored to be among the recipients of leadership awards from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), both organizations that support the expanded use of health IT. Finally, the Improved Medical Decision Incentive Act of 2007 (S.1471) would help realign incentives in the reimbursement system to encourage the development and use of approved best practices in medical care. I believe these reforms will save lives, drive down overall health care spending, and ultimately make health insurance more affordable.
Beyond these initiatives, I am working with my colleagues to promote the lifesaving research taking place at the National Institutes of Health, to fix the Medicare Part D program, to expand the very successful Children's Health Insurance Program, to improve health information technology at the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense, to lift federal prohibitions against electronic prescribing for controlled substances, and to promote quality-improving and cost-saving health care projects around the country. I'm proud that Congress was able to override President Bush's veto of badly-needed legislation that spared doctors and seniors in Rhode Island deep cuts in Medicare reimbursements. I will not stop searching for ways to make high quality, affordable health care an attainable reality for all Americans.
Our American health care system is itself in need of help. A massive wave of health care cost is bearing down on our country's economy. Now is the time to take smart, effective reform measures that will lead us to the bright health care future we deserve, which we can achieve if we have the foresight.