There is no question in my mind that our current health care system cannot be sustained and must be improved. Click Here to read why I voted yes on the health care reform legislation.
Before
entering Congress, I spent 23 years of my life working as a health care
professional. As a clinical psychologist, I specialized in working with
brain injury, stroke, and cancer patients and their families. I also
worked in VA hospitals, outpatient clinics, child and adolescent
treatment centers, and a number of other clinical mental health
settings.
I
believe we must comprehensively reform the health care system in order
to lower skyrocketing costs and expand coverage to the nearly 47
million Americans who are currently uninsured.
Click here to read the 2010 health care reform act: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of H.R. 3590.
Click here to read my Seattle Times Op Ed on health care.
Click here to read Congressman Brian Baird's Statement Regarding his vote on 2009's H.R. 3962 – The Affordable Health Care for America Act.
Additional Health Care Resources:
Kaiser Family Foundation
AARP
American Medical Association
Reading the Bill:
No member of Congress has worked harder or taken a stronger lead than
Congressman Baird to assure that not only representatives, but the
public and media have time to read legislation before it is voted on.
It was at Congressman Baird's request that House Democratic leadership
offered a unprecedented five hour long briefing on the health care
legislation, so that Members of Congress could discuss the legislation
in detail and ask questions. More than 170 members attended this briefing.
Congressman Baird's effort began several years ago after a nearly
half-trillion dollar Medicare prescription drug bill was passed by the
House with less than 30 hours to read the bill and no chance to amend
it. So too, major "Omnibus"
appropriations bills, some more than a thousand pages long and spending
hundreds of billions of dollars, were regularly brought to a vote with
even less time to read.
To remedy this, Congressman Baird has introduced legislation
that would require that any bill be available online to Members of
Congress, the public, and the media for at least 72 hours before it can
be voted on by the House of Representatives.
Addressing Rising Medical Malpractice Insurance Costs
The
problem of rising medical liability insurance costs is complex, and
many have come to believe that the current situation is undermining our
health care system, demoralizing health care professionals, costing
billions of dollars per year, failing to substantially reduce medical
errors, and still leaving many patients with legitimate claims
unsupported. Faced with these concerns, Congressman Baird acknowledges
that common sense, balanced reform is both essential and imminent.
Reform should constrain the cost of medical liability insurance and
reduce unwarranted litigation, protect the rights of patients who have
been harmed to received compensation, and improve the quality of health
care in this country.
Congressman Baird introduced the Comprehensive Medical Malpractice Reform Act which will:
- Regulate and reform the medical malpractice insurance industry
-
Provide alternatives to litigation through the promotion of successful
mediation practices to improve the quality of health care in this country
- Reduce frivolous lawsuits and sets reasonable limits on non-economic damages
- Exclude medical devices and pharmaceuticals from the cap on non-economic damages
Congressman Baird believes this approach is likely to improve patient
care, reduce medical errors, lower the costs of litigation, and still
provide avenues for patients who have been harmed to receive
compensation and support. He is strongly committed to a bipartisan and
practical approach to medical malpractice reform, taking into
consideration the views and concerns of all persons affected by the
outcome. He will continue to work with his colleagues in Congress and
with the Administration to achieve this common goal.
Ensuring Fair Pay for our Doctors
Many doctors in our region are forced to turn Medicare patients away
because Medicare payments don't cover the cost of care. Some have even
moved their practices to other states where they will receive a higher
per-patient reimbursement from Medicare. For example, Florida receives
28 percent more funding per Medicare patient than Washington.
Essentially, our state receives less per patient because our health care
system is efficient and cost-effective. Every one of our seniors has
paid the same percentage of their income towards Medicare as seniors in
other states and they deserve to receive the same treatment regardless
of where they live. It is time to stop penalizing seniors who live in
the Northwest.
Congressman Baird has worked closely with the rest of the Washington
delegation and a bi-partisan coalition of Representatives and Senators
to resolve this inequity. Together, they helped include some
improvements in the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act.
Unfortunately, the changes do not fully establish equity for our
region, so Congressman Baird will continue to fight for fair rates and
equal treatment access.
The problem is not just regional. The reimbursement formula utilized by
the federal government for Medicare recipients is inherently flawed.
Congressman Baird is working to ensure Medicare adequately reimburses
physicians nationwide who treat Medicare recipients. For years, our
physicians have subsidized the treatment of Medicare patients because
government reimbursements failed to cover their costs. Sadly, many
physicians are now financially unable to accept new Medicare patients.
Congressman Baird has supported the bipartisan Preserving Patient Access to Physicians Act.
This legislation would repeal the current reimbursement formula and
replace it with a more sensible rate that better accounts for
increasing health care costs.
Ensuring Equal Access to Mental Health Services
As a mental health professional, and one of only two clinical
psychologists serving in Congress, Congressman Baird has firsthand
knowledge of the impact and importance of mental health treatment and
the inequities that often exist in funding and consideration for mental
health treatments. In order to correct this imbalance Congressman Baird
was a leading advocate of the bipartisan Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act which
became law on October 3, 2008. The law prohibits health plans from
imposing time limits and similar restrictions on the treatment of
mental health disorders, if similar restrictions are not imposed on
medical and surgical benefits. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
reports that this will lead to less than a two percent increase in
premiums, and it will remove one of the barriers that keep millions of
Americans from receiving the mental health care they need.
Providing Options to Small Businesses
With almost 47 million uninsured Americans, access to affordable health
care is one of the most challenging problems facing America today.
Because of the high cost of health care coverage, many small businesses
simply cannot afford to provide insurance to their employees. Small
business owners have expressed support for Small Business Health Plans,
which allow businesses to join together to provide coverage to their
employees. By banding together to purchase insurance, businesses and
employers share the costs and reduce the individual financial burden
that can keep companies from offering coverage to workers.
While Congressman Baird initially had reservations about Small Business
Health Plans, he met repeatedly with local business leaders to learn
more about the obstacles they encounter and the benefits of
cost-sharing associated with these health plans. Although there is
certainly room for further improvements in the area of solvency and
viability of the insurers and protections for mental health and other
benefits, Congressman Baird believes that - in the end - it is far
better for employees and businesses to have insurance they can afford
and has voted in support of Small Business Health Plans.
Preparing for Avian Flu and Other Infectious Diseases
We tend to take for granted that we are now safe from infectious
diseases. We believe that infectious disease pandemics are relics of
the past or tragedies that affect other parts of the world. And we
wrongly trust that science and medicine will protect us if a new
infectious disease were to arise. Unfortunately, human history shows us
that at least once a century, and sometimes more often, a global or
regional disease can kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of people
or more. In this day and age, increased air travel helps disease spread
even faster. We must acknowledge and recognize that we are not safe and
that we must protect ourselves from the inevitable.
Despite these stark realities, there is every disincentive preventing
companies from investing in the research, development, and
manufacturing of treatments for these infectious diseases. The disease
we most often hear about is Avian Flu, but just a few years ago it was
SARS, and before that, the Ebola virus. These pandemics can do great
harm - for instance, the 1918 pandemic flu killed 675,000 Americans.
More routine infectious diseases can also have an impact. One and a
half million people contract drug resistant bacterial infections in our
hospitals annually. Drug resistant pathogens currently cost the country
$5 billion annually, and this cost would skyrocket if a pandemic broke
out among humans. The Institute of Medicine has identified drug
resistance as an increasing threat to our public health.
Congressman Baird has introduced the bipartisan Beating Infections through Research and Development (BIRD) Act.
The bill would create new incentives for companies to invest in
research and development to help diagnose and treat infectious
diseases. Specifically, the bill would allow fast track FDA review,
patent extensions, and tax credits on infectious disease research and
manufacturing.
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