Health Care

Lowering Health Care Costs

Health care is a deeply personal issue to me.

My sister-in-law, Barb, died several years ago without health insurance. Barb and her husband both worked full-time, but they couldn’t afford health insurance and when she got sick, she couldn’t afford the most effective cancer treatment she needed to survive.

Even those who can afford insurance are not immune to the extremely high costs of operations and prescription medications.  A few months after my sister-in-law passed away, my brother Danny died, leaving behind a wife and two daughters.  His insurance would not cover his cancer treatment because an experimental drug was required.  I support legislation that will help more families afford quality health care and that makes sure no families have to go through the suffering my family did.

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but it makes real improvements in our health care system.  It lowers costs for small business owners, prevents insurance companies from denying people with pre-existing conditions coverage and allows children to stay on their parents’ health insurance for longer.  It also lowers prescription drug costs for many of our seniors.

Because of these improvements, I will oppose any attempts to repeal these needed reforms.

Now, we need to fix what does not work and work together to find cost-lowering improvements that do not harm patient choice or quality.  This means modernizing health care delivery to reduce bureaucracy and administrative spending, while reducing medical errors.  We can save money and more importantly, save lives by taking these common sense steps.