Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

Health care is important to all Missourians and those who seek to have health insurance should be able to obtain it at affordable rates. I will work to find innovative ways to help Missourians obtain health insurance. Our health care system should not encourage people to rely on the government for health care assistance. Instead, we as a society should encourage all citizens to take personal responsibility for their health care and pursue healthy lifestyle choices.

Approximately 845,000 Missourians are currently enrolled in Medicaid. Doctors who are willing to see Medicaid patients should be appropriately compensated for those services. Government health care without access to physicians is a recipe for unnecessary and costly visits to the emergency room. Large amounts of uncompensated care in hospitals drive up the cost of health care for all taxpayers.

To increase the quality of, and reduce the cost for health care in Central Missouri, I support competition in the market. While we may consider competitive prices to still be too high, competition helps hold prices down. Removing competition would drive prices up, quality down, and make quality health care less available to all.

Source