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Health Care

Health Care

Topics:
    »»Drug Costs    »»Tort Reform    »»Wasteful Spending    »»ER Care    »»Related Press
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I have heard from many Tennesseans who say they can’t keep up with the rising costs of health insurance. In Tennessee alone, insurance costs have risen 129% for small businesses since 2000, forcing many to cut benefits or stop offering coverage for employees.

Experts predict health care costs will continue to skyrocket if something is not done:

• The Business Roundtable, an association of leading U.S. companies, published a report in
September that found in the last eight years, total medical costs (employer and employee
premiums, plus employee out-of-pocket payments) for employer plans have risen by
118% – from $4,918 per employee in 2001 to $10,743 per employee in 2009. If nothing
changes, the report concludes that costs in 2019 will be over $28,000 per employee.

• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report on September 30, which found that
Tennesseans would face a 67% increase in health-care spending by 2019, while employers
would face an increase of 109% in health-care premiums. It also estimated that state
spending on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program would rise by 107% during
the next 10 years.

I believe that health care reform needs first and foremost to make health care coverage more affordable for everyone – small businesses, individuals and families. It must also make health insurance portable, so if you lose or change your job, your insurance goes with you. State lines shouldn’t get in the way of insurance companies offering coverage – allowing this will increase options, create competition, and ultimately lower costs. Insurance companies should be prohibited from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and they shouldn’t be able to cut off coverage when a person gets sick. And, any reform proposal should be deficit neutral.

We need to get this right and ensure that any health care proposal signed into law improves the U.S. health care system by reducing costs, as well as increasing access and quality of care.


Here are some additional things I am working on:


Reducing the Cost of Prescription Drugs
Americans pay more for prescription drugs than citizens of any other developed country in the world. Prescription drugs are significantly cheaper in Canada, Britain and other European countries where drug safety standards are similar to those in the United States. I have been a long time supporter of safe drug importation to reduce drug prices for all Americans. I supported the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act (press release), which would allow pharmacies and drug wholesalers to import drugs from countries with high drug safety standards. I am also committed to getting seniors better prices for drugs, and supported an amendment to include Medicare drug negotiation in H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choice’s Act of 2009, in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This will allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors just like the Secretary of the VA is able to negotiate lower drug prices for veterans.


Medical Malpractice Reforms
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, defensive medicine costs the health care system an estimated $210 billion annually. I believe we should be squeezing out all of the waste and inefficiencies out of the health care system we can. As a long time supporter of common-sense medical malpractice reform, I was able to get alternative medical malpractice reforms into the version of H.R. 3200 marked up by the House Energy and Commerce Committee (press release). This makes the Energy and Commerce bill the only one of the five health care reform bills currently under discussion to address medical liability. The amendment would create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services to encourage state to enact Certificates of Merit and Early Offer programs. The President announced during his September 9 health speech to Congress that the Department of Health and Human Services would be moving forward immediately with state pilot projects based on my amendment. The new grants would go toward early disclosure and certificate-of-merit programs.


Cutting Wasteful Administrative Costs
Health care is one of the few sectors in the United States that is still paper-based. If doctors and hospitals start using electronic medical record and billing systems, it could help lower health costs and save lives by improving efficiency, eliminating paperwork and duplicate services, and catching medical errors. It is estimated the wide use of health information technology could save the health care system as much as $81 billion a year. In 2007, I authored the Healthcare Information Technology Enterprise Integration Act (press release), which would encourage doctors and hospitals to invest in electronic medical record systems by directing the National Institutes of Standards and Technology to develop voluntary interoperability and data security technical standards for health information technology. If doctors feel more confident the equipment they are purchasing can communicate with other health care providers and will protect the privacy of their patients’ sensitive medical information, they will be more willing to invest in this technology. This legislation was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was signed into law on February 17, 1009.


Improving Access and Care in Emergency Rooms
According to a 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine, our nation’s hospital emergency rooms are overcrowded, underfunded, and understaffed, resulting in longer waiting times for even the sickest people. If emergency rooms cannot currently handle the daily influx of patients, there would be catastrophic consequences in the wake of a national disaster. In the 111th Congress, I authored the Emergency Medical Services Act (press release), which would provide additional funding to hospital emergency room departments. The legislation also would create a commission to identify the primary factors that are impeding the delivery of emergency medical services. I was able to incorporate the commission in the manager’s amendment for H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choice’s Act of 2009.

>> Recent Health Press:

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