Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

Americans need health care coverage that is universal and affordable. We have to face the reality that our tentative approach to health care is jeopardizing the best medical care in the world and leaving more Americans uninsured and vulnerable every year.

All Americans should have access to affordable health care coverage, yet 46 million Americans remain uninsured. To reverse this alarming trend, I support an employer-based approach to universal health insurance coverage supplemented by a publicly-financed program to assist those of limited means. I will continue to explore ways to increase access, flexibility and choice for Americans seeking health insurance coverage, with the ultimate goal of universal coverage.

There are many ways that Congress could increase access to health insurance. First, we could expand the current State-Children's Health Insurance Program to cover parents of eligible children. We also could allow states to cover other groups of individuals through either S-CHIP or the Medicaid program. For example, many caregivers whom we count on to provide dependable child and health care to our children and aging seniors are themselves without health insurance and could be helped through expansion of the S-CHIP or Medicaid programs. I also have proposed allowing all Americans to purchase health plan coverage similar to the health insurance offered to federal employees. Finally, I have introduced legislation to provide the self-employed with a full tax deduction for their health insurance costs and to provide small businesses with tax credits when they provide low-income employees with health insurance.

Medicare must be preserved to continue to provide high-quality health care, with health-promoting improvements such as health screenings, immunizations and smoking-cessation coverage.

Access to insurance is a challenge for those suffering from mental illness, and I have proposed legislation to end this discrimination. I commissioned a U.S. General Accounting Office study that found that individuals who have suffered from mental illness have a harder time getting health insurance than those who have had other health conditions. Even when other physical ailments are just as expensive to treat, the insurance companies are more likely to deny coverage for a mental health problem. Millions of Americans who suffer from mental illness must battle not only with their disease, but also with discrimination by the insurance companies. Access to health coverage should not depend on whether a patient suffers from diabetes or depression, or is coping with breast cancer or bereavement. Insurers should be working to break down the stigma of mental illness, not to perpetuate it.

I am also working to correct inadequate reimbursements to hospitals for Medicaid and Medicare services. Many of the hospitals that receive the most complex and costly medical cases are struggling financially, due to inadequate payments and the cost of uncompensated care. I am working to ensure adequate federal funding so that teaching hospitals and rural and safety net hospitals can remain in business. When a crisis occurs, those are some of the hospitals we all rely on. We must not allow them to fail due to inadequate reimbursement of their costs.

We also must address the shortage of registered nurses and other health professionals in our nation. One in five Illinois registered nurses no longer work in the field of nursing. Americans must face the emerging reality that when our nation rings for a nurse's help, it is less and less likely that a nurse will be there to respond. This shortage will affect all of us in the future, whether it's in the emergency room, in the nursing home, or in our own homes. As America ages, we will need more and more health care providers. I am working to develop legislation to address issues such as stagnating wages, increased workloads, stressful environments, and better career opportunities so that the critical help we need will be there in our time of crisis.

I have pushed for the adoption of an enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights for many years. Everyone must be accountable for their actions. Today in America there are only two groups who have immunity - foreign diplomats and HMOs. I believe that is wrong and that is why I have supported giving patients the legal tools to seek redress if they are seriously harmed by their HMO.

In 1997, I introduced the Employee Health Insurance Accountability Act. This bill lifted the veil of immunity from HMOs that cause harm to their patients. The bill was incorporated into later Democratic Patients' Bill of Rights legislation. Last year, I supported the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, which was approved by the Senate but has remained trapped in negotiations between the House of Representatives and Senate for over a year. This bill gives doctors the flexibility to exercise their best medical judgment and guarantees that patients will receive the treatment and care trained professionals deem necessary. In addition, the legislation is enforceable - it makes sure that managed care organizations and other entities making life and death decisions are held accountable in court for the medical decisions they make that harm patients. We must get past the partisan impasse holding up this bill and pass the Patients' Bill of Rights.

Source