Healthcare

Prescription Drug Reform: The process for generic drugs to make it to the marketplace to be sold has in the past taken far too long to get approval by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). During the last session of Congress, Rep. Murphy introduced  H.R. 3988, the Generic Drug and Biosimilar User Fee Act (GDUFA), which will clear a backlog of nearly 2,800 generic medication applications that are awaiting FDA review and factory inspection. The bill which was included as part of the larger Food and Drug Administration reform bill was signed into law by the President on January 9, 2012. H.R.3988 establishes the first-ever generic drug user fee program so that generic drug companies—not taxpayers or consumers—bear the $300 million annual cost of application review and foreign factory inspections. This bill is expected to reduce healthcare costs by hundreds of millions of dollars for senior citizens, who already save $1,000 annually through access to life-saving generic drugs.   

Chronic Disease Management: Medicare discourages specialists, primary care physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers from working together to deliver the best model of care for complicated cases. With chronic illnesses like diabetes consuming 95 percent of the Medicare budget, paying for hospitalizations and surgeries, but not the coordinated care necessary to prevent costlier complications, is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Medicare should adopt disease management models that keep seniors healthy and out of the hospital.

Community Health Centers: Community health centers (CHC) serve as a neighborhood medical home for 20 million Americans, many of whom are low income and would otherwise seek treatment in emergency rooms. CHCs save $25 billion a year, but a workforce shortage is making it hard to provide care to low-income and rural families. Currently, if a physician volunteers at a free clinic or works at a CHC, they receive malpractice coverage through the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). But if they are employed at a free clinic or volunteer at a CHC, they are not covered and have to provide their own med-mal insurance, sometimes costing more than $100,000. Clinics can’t afford this expense, and illnesses go untreated because of it. Rep. Murphy’s Family Health Care Accessibility Act breaks down this barrier to volunteerism and provides better healthcare access to millions of Americans. This bill will save Medicaid from paying for costly hospitalizations that result from a lack of primary care.

Quality Reforms: Each year billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives are lost through medical errors, waste and inefficiencies. From duplicative tests and redundant procedures; from medication errors to preventable complications and rehospitalizations; between $500 and $800 billion is lost in the healthcare system. For example, more people die each year from preventable infections contracted while in the hospital than from AIDS, breast cancer or auto accidents. Rep. Murphy introduced the Healthy Hospitals Act to require public reporting of healthcare acquired infections. This legislation, which passed the House on March 13, 2008 and was later signed into law, not only provides an incentive for hospitals to reduce infection rates, but provides patients with more information to make more informed healthcare decisions. 

Tort Reform: Rep. Murphy has cosponsored and worked with colleagues in the Energy and Commerce Committee to pass H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act (HEALTH) Act. This legislation makes important changes to medical liability laws, ensuring that patients are protected while also reducing healthcare costs associated with junk lawsuits and defensive medicine, which is estimated to add up to $246 billion in costs that don’t make patients any healthier.

Taking on Medicare and Medicaid Fraud: As Chairman of the Oversight Committee, Rep. Murphy is investigating Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse. Reforms can save Americans $60 billion each year in wasted healthcare dollars.

Choice in Healthcare Insurance: Health insurance plans are loaded with mandates, legal complexities and coverage policies that lead to huge differences in costs from state to state. A plan that costs $3,000 for a family in Utah could be $12,000 in New York, and simply prices many people out of the market. Rep. Murphy supports solutions that allow Americans to shop for plans across state lines, pick the level of coverage they desire, and join groups to increase their negotiating and purchasing power. In addition, health plans must be personal, portable and permanent. Americans should be allowed to take insurance with them when they change jobs and not lose insurance simply because they switch jobs or get sick.