Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

HEALTH CARE REFORM -- (Senate - September 23, 2009)

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I wish to begin by recognizing and thanking Senator Warner for his efforts today to organize the freshmen to talk about why it is so critical that we get something done to reform health care in this country. He and I both belong to the former Governors caucus, and I come to this debate with the work, years of work that I did as Governor and the perspective we have to do something to improve the availability of health care for all Americans and certainly for the families in New Hampshire.

Over the past several months, my office has responded to thousands of letters and phone calls about health care. I have traveled all across New Hampshire, talking to small business owners and families who are desperate for help. I have talked to health care providers who are frustrated with the current system. Time and time again, what I have heard is that our health care system is not working. Costs are too high and access is too limited. The status quo is simply not sustainable. Now is the time to act.

Every day in New Hampshire and across our country, families are struggling with the rising costs of health care. It threatens their financial stability and leaves them exposed to higher premiums and deductibles and puts them at risk of losing their health insurance and, in too many cases, financial ruin. According to one study, 62 percent of bankruptcies in 2007 were caused by a medical condition. I have a chart that shows this very clearly. This is the 62 percent of those bankruptcies that were the result of the costs of medical care. What is probably even more concerning is that of those 62 percent, 78 percent of them were insured. So most of the people in this country who are going bankrupt as the result of their health care costs actually have health insurance.

Health care costs are a threat to our economy, to our small businesses, and to our working families. The current health care system is simply unsustainable for our economy. As Senator Warner pointed out, it is estimated that in 2009 our Nation will spend $2.5 trillion or 18 percent of our gross domestic product on health care. That means health care costs account for 18 percent of the value of all the goods and services produced in this country. If we continue on this current path, health care will make up over a third of our economy by 2040.

Senator Warner showed that in a chart. This is a graph that shows the same thing--what happens to health care costs if we do nothing, as a portion of the entire economy of this country.

In New Hampshire, our small businesses are feeling this burden firsthand. From 2002 to 2006, there was a more than 40-percent increase in the cost of health insurance premiums for New Hampshire businesses. For those of our smallest businesses, those with fewer than 10 employees, that increase was almost double, to more than 70 percent--a 70-percent increase in just 4 years for small businesses in New Hampshire. That means that, although our small business owners want to provide their employees with health insurance, many of them cannot afford it.

Ultimately, it is our hard-working families who suffer. Today, the average family living in New Hampshire pays about $14,600 for their insurance premium. In New Hampshire, we have the highest premiums in the country for those people who have group rates.

I wish to say that one more time because in New Hampshire we are paying the highest premiums in the country for group health insurance. If we continue on this current path, families will be paying almost $25,000 in the next 10 years, by 2019. Again, here is another graph that shows what is going to happen to New Hampshire families--$25,000 in 10 years. This is not affordable.

The good news is that we know how to bring down costs. At the Center for Informed Choice at Dartmouth, research shows that more spending does not translate into better outcomes. In fact, it shows that up to 40 percent of the time, patients who are engaged in the decisions related to their care will choose the less invasive and less costly procedures. These choices produce better outcomes with higher rates of patient satisfaction.

The health care industry can do better for less. We can find savings in our system. For example, experts have estimated that we can save $5,000 per Medicare beneficiary by reducing costly hospital readmissions. I have introduced legislation with Senator SUSAN COLLINS from Maine called the Medicare Transitional Care Act. This bipartisan legislation will reduce Medicare costs and offer better support and coordination of care to Medicare patients. This will not only improve the quality of health care for our seniors, but it will also save taxpayers money.

I was very pleased to see that many of these provisions were in the markup that came out of the Finance Committee.

Although the numbers and statistics are compelling, it is really the stories I have heard from my constituents which best illustrate why reform cannot wait. This is not just about politics, this is about real people.

A few weeks ago I received a letter from a young woman named Jennifer. Jennifer and her husband had recently decided they wanted to start a family. They both work for small businesses that do not offer health insurance, so they shopped around for an individual insurance plan. The policy they could afford did not cover standard maternity care, but they were told they would be covered in case of an emergency: if Jennifer needed a C-section or if she had other health problems during the pregnancy.

Unfortunately, Jennifer suffered a rare complication, a molar pregnancy, resulting in a loss of the pregnancy and requiring extensive followup. But the insurance company told them it would not cover ``that'' emergency. So during their time of grieving, Jennifer and her husband are not only facing piles of medical bills, they are wondering how they will ever be able to afford a baby in the future.

No young family should have to go through this. We have the opportunity to stabilize health care costs and reform our health care system for people such as Jennifer and her husband. We know this is not easy. It is one of the greatest challenges of our time. But the time has long passed for action. We need to act now to stabilize costs and provide coverage for Americans.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to achieve this goal.

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