Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

We spend twice as much on healthcare as the average industrialized nation and we are ranks 37th in the world in health care as reported by The New England Journal of Medicine. I have trouble accepting that every other industrialized country has figured out how to solve this problem, while we continue to struggle with it. President Obama and Congress continue to have an exhilarating task ahead of them in selling this Health care program to the American people. The final outcome remains to be seen, but my goals--some are to lower costs, improve quality, and expand coverage without adding to the budget deficit.

Lowering Costs

Three of the biggest factors in lowering costs are the lack of preventive care; the high cost of caring for the chronically ill and the lack of competition by Insurance Company. If the insured is allowed to shop for their health insurance in another State instead of using the emergency room as their primary care provider and start seeing a doctor before their conditions become expensive. Estimates are that this lowers the costs of people with healthcare by about as much as $1100. More coordinated care for the chronically ill--as they do at the Vanderbilt Hospital Clinic--has the benefit of both lowering costs and improving quality. That's because a coordinated team makes fewer mistakes than the traditional model without incurring significant costs. Many would prefer that we allow more competition across state lines. I support that as well, but it assumes that there is a state with high quality, low cost health care. There is not yet a plan that offers robust competition, not unlike the Military's Tri-Care for retired and active duty servicemen and women, this plan requires less overhead and has less inefficiency than a typical private sector plan, this is something we should look closer at in the future.

Improve Quality

The best practices in medicine are not broadly practiced. Studies have shown wide disparities in treatment without commensurate results. We have the opportunity with health care reform to establish national data-driven standards for delivering health care. This has the benefit of reducing adverse outcomes for patients, lawsuits for doctors, and costs for the entire system. Many Hospital have already gone to computerized records, Digital imaging, sharing and storing of this information is not only cost effective but it speeds up diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Expanding Coverage

Reducing costs is directly linked to expanding coverage. The less health care costs, the more people who will be able to afford it; so, the policies above, should by themselves, expand coverage. But I am one of those that feels that health care, like education, should be available to all Americans. It's not just economically smart, it is the right thing to do. A healthier nation is a more productive, more competitive nation. Some Americans simply aren't profitable for private sector insurers, and won't be covered. Only an insurance plan without a profit motive can cover these Americans

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