Tom Carper, U.S. Senator for Delaware

Americans spent over $2 trillion—almost $8,000 per person—on health care in 2009. The growth of health care costs outpaced the growth of the U.S. economy at close to 17 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), maintaining a trend that has been unbroken since 1970. Rising health care costs jeopardize the economic well-being of millions of American families and businesses. At the same time, 25 million Americans have inadequate health care coverage and over 50 million Americans are uninsured.  

I have worked hard over the past several years to improve the quality of our health care system, curb healthcare costs and provide coverage to more Americans. As a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, I worked with my colleagues in both parties to develop and pass a comprehensive health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, with the following goals in mind: improve health outcomes and quality by focusing on wellness and prevention, contain the rising costs of health care and ensure access to high quality and affordable health care.    

The Affordable Care Act will offer affordable health care to 95 percent of all Americans, including 32 million Americans who lack health insurance today, and about 95,000 Delawareans. We also put in place reforms that would strengthen our economy by giving both large and small businesses the tools to lower their health care costs, stay competitive in a global market and increase their capacity to create more jobs.    

Improving Health Outcomes and Quality by Focusing on Wellness and Prevention    

The Affordable Care Act works to improve health care outcomes and quality by moving our country from a system that treats individuals once they become sick to a system focused on keeping Americans healthy. I fought for several initiatives that made preventative care a major priority including: eliminating co-pays for basic, proven care such as checkups and immunizations; ensuring that annual physicals will be covered as part of patients' regular Medicare benefits to help diagnose chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's; requiring large chain restaurants to disclose nutritional information about their standard menu items and authorizing $200 million over 5 years for grants to small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to provide access to comprehensive, evidence-based workplace wellness programs.    

Containing the Rising Costs of Health Care    

One of my top priorities during the health care debate was to curb the growth of health care costs by improving the quality of our health care system. I wanted to replicate what was already working well in places like the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania where they deliver top notch care at a reasonable cost. We should learn from these examples by focusing on care coordination and communication between health care providers, utilizing electronic health records and emphasizing prevention and wellness programs.    

Recognizing that defensive medicine and inconsistent quality can also add significant costs to our health care system, I worked to make sure that the Affordable Care Act also authorizes $50 million for the testing and evaluation of state-based alternatives to our current medical malpractice system.  

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