Michael F.Bennet

Providing Quality, Affordable Health Care to Every American

Each day, Coloradans are denied insurance coverage for treatment their doctor recommends. Families and individuals are being charged higher premiums, losing benefits, and going into debt because of medical bills.  There is no "easy fix" solution to the problems in our health care system. But I support reform, and I will work with my colleagues in the Senate to provide quality, affordable health care to the people of Colorado and the nation.  These are my principles:

• You should be able to keep your current coverage. If you like your insurance and your doctor, there's no reason you should have to change.
• We have to address rising health care costs. In the last decade, health insurance premiums have risen five times faster than wages. This contributes to the average Colorado family paying over $12,000 for employer-sponsored coverage.
• Small businesses must have substantial relief from the growing cost of providing employer health care coverage. As health care becomes more costly, small and even large businesses are dropping employer-based coverage.
• We need insurance security that covers people when they change jobs and never denies people coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
• We must invest in cutting-edge medical research to save lives and bring biotechnology jobs to Colorado. We can lead in entrepreneurship and innovation.
• Reform must result in every American having access to affordable health coverage and reasonable prescription drug costs.

Children's Health Care
I believe that all our children must have access to quality health care. Due to the rising costs of health care, too many hard-working families have been losing their employer-sponsored health insurance and cannot afford the care they desperately need for their child. This is why I voted for the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. This bill would provide Colorado with an additional $97.5 million to cover our children. Nationwide, 11 million children will be helped by this legislation.

I also have been working in the Senate to support the work of school-based health centers (SBHCs) and make it easier for kids to receive quality, affordable health care at school. Colorado serves thousands of kids each year but much of these services are not reimbursed. SBHCs need reimbursements to buy supplies, hire and maintain medical staff, and provide a wide range of health care services to students. I have introduced the Healthy Schools Act of 2009 that would put a more streamlined procedure in place for school-based health centers to be properly reimbursed by the federal government.

Rural Health Care
Our health care system disadvantages rural areas in primary care and outpatient services, hospitals, providers and the workforce. Health care providers in our rural communities are under enormous pressure to provide broad access to quality health care. For example, six counties in Colorado do not have a full-time primary care physician. Fourteen counties do not even have a hospital.  

Payment disparities between rural and urban areas in Medicare and Medicaid discourage providers from staying in rural communities and underfund hospitals that are a safety-net for a majority of Coloradans. This is why I passed a budget amendment directing that health savings in the system as a whole are used to provide resources to underserved rural areas.

Patient-Centered Care
For every five Medicare patients released from the hospital, one is re-admitted within a month, and more than three-quarters of these readmissions are preventable. This alone costs Medicare more than $17 billion dollars every year. Too many patients do not receive coordinated care and feel lost in the system.

Colorado has been a leader in implementing transitional care that results in true care focused around the needs of a patient. I have introduced the Medicare Care Transitions Act of 2009 to build off Colorado's innovative patient-centered care models. I will continue fighting to expand transitional care at a national level.

Protecting Medicare for Our Seniors
We must provide better quality care for our nation's seniors. Medicare needs to be reformed in order to give Coloradans more access to their choice of doctors and nurses, chronic care management, and an assurance of integrity from providers. I believe there needs to be easier enrollment from a choice of Medicare plans, and we must guarantee better coordinated care for beneficiaries.

Economic Recovery
Due to the economic recession, more people have been losing their health insurance and relying on Medicaid to provide coverage. The economic recovery bill that we passed will provide $880 million over the next two years to help Coloradans stay in the Medicaid program and continue getting the critical services they need.  Community health centers, the backbone of our nation's health system will also receive new resources. Colorado has over 120 of these clinics. The recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will provide over $7.5 million dollars to our state's community health centers.