Health Care
Improving Health Care for All
About 80 percent of all Americans, or about 130
million people, currently have health insurance through their
workplace. I favor reforming health care, reining in costs and
making insurance more affordable and available, but not at the
expense of all those who already have and like their coverage. The
new health care law costs and taxes too much, will break state and
family budgets, and is especially harmful to seniors on Medicare
and Medicare Advantage. It will tax and spend us into a hole from
which we might never dig out. I could fully support a more reasoned
approach, including: eliminating pre-existing conditions, providing
portability so you can take your insurance from one job to the
next, allowing insurance to be purchased across state lines,
providing a greater emphasis on wellness and curbing lawsuit abuses
that force doctors to over-test and practice defensive
medicine.
I also remain very active in nursing issues, and remain co-chair
of the House Nursing Caucus. I have worked to expand nursing
programs at Lakeland and Cuyahoga community colleges, and continue
to focus on the nursing shortage, mandatory overtime and increased
funding for Nursing Workforce Development programs. I have been
active in nursing issues since I was first elected, even though
I've never been on the committees that manage most nursing issues.
I was able to change federal law to guarantee that all VA nurses
get a raise each year like all other federal workers.