Issue Position: Health Care Reform

Issue Position

"Having worked in the private sector over the past decade creating and growing small businesses, I've seen firsthand the unsustainable pressure and impossible choices forced on companies and employees by skyrocketing health care costs. I've said from the start of this campaign, doing nothing to address this issue is not an option."

-- Denny Heck, letter to supporters, March 20, 2010

Being involved in several start-ups and small businesses, I've seen health insurance companies significantly increase our rates every year. Small Businesses across our state are faced with the choice of laying off employees or cancelling health insurance. At four to five times the rate of inflation, health care costs are spiraling out of control, and have been for some time. But no one needs to tell the families of southwest Washington this, who every day must account for these rising costs.

The Health Care Reform Bill

Health care reform legislation is far from perfect and is a work in progress. But it does tackle important issues and was a step in the right direction.

Important provisions included in the reform:

- Small Business tax credits, for those that provide health insurance to their employees, taking effect immediately

- Prohibits Insurance Companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions

- Creation of state health insurance exchanges to increase competition and lower costs

Next Steps: Bringing down Health Care costs

Health care inflation remains a significant challenge to our economy and obstacle for economic growth. We can and should do more in the area of cost containment. Some key actions we can take:

- Attract and retain more Primary Care physicians

- Ten percent of Medical School graduates go into Primary Care, a fraction of what it once was.

- The Medicare reimbursement system provides a powerful disincentive for primary care physicians, and needs to be changed. While the health care reform legislation passed changes to this system, it must be expanded upon to ensure rural providers are not put at a disadvantage.

- For the first time the health care reform legislation allowed funds to go to directly to community clinics to create more slots for more Doctors to be trained.

- Strengthen comparative effectiveness research and utilization throughout the health care system

- Continue to incentivize electronic medical records, and other modernization of health care administration

- I was pleased to see a significant investment by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in this regard, and we can do more to incentivize this transition.

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