Affordable Healthcare for All Americans
I believe in Universal Health Insurance for All Americans, protection for our greatest generation, and peer-reviewed science to find the next generation of cures.
I strongly support comprehensive healthcare reform that incorporates the following key elements:
Universal Health Insurance: Lowering Healthcare Costs and Keeping American Families Healthy
I will cosponsor HR 676, a single-payer health insurance plan written by Congressman John Conyers and sponsored by 68 Representatives. This bill includes provisions for—
- uncancelable, portable health insurance for everyone in the nation, including 46 million people currently without any insurance.
- insurance benefit packages that will be formulated in each state by a group of representatives appointed or elected from the general population and from all medical fields. Members of this group will not be members of the state legislature.
- annual reviews to ensure the quality and affordability of medical services.
- patients to choose their own doctors and other medical service providers, who will be paid fees for their services, as they are now.
- all medical decisions to be made by doctors and their patients. There will be more focus on providing preventive care for healthy people, resulting in a reduction of catastrophic illnesses and expensive invasive procedures, surgeries, emergency-room visits, and lengthy hospital stays.
- reduction of administrative costs by approximately two-thirds, with the savings accruing to the benefit of employers and taxpayers. The payroll taxes assessed to employers and employees will be considerably lower than the insurance premiums they now pay, saving American companies billions of dollars.
- elimination of out-of-pocket expenditures for copayments and deductibles.
Until HR 676 is enacted, I will work to ensure that Medicare and Medicaid are fully funded and that Medicaid covers children through age six, ensuring that the health of a child will not be an obstacle to their future growth and success.
Protecting Our Greatest Generation and Those Who Follow
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I will —
- make it my goal to fully fund the Veterans Aministration system each and every year, to honor the veterans who have served, and sacrificed for, our nation. Congress must ensure that VA funding is never again subject to a
$1 billion shortfall.
- support creating an independent part of the Veterans Administration to address health issues associated with exposure to harmful organisms and agents.
- work to give our senior citizens a coherent prescription drug plan that will make all medications affordable and eliminate the large gaps in coverage contained in Medicare Part D. The new plan, unlike Medicare Part D, will save money for patients and taxpayers by permitting the government to negotiate prices with drug companies, as health insurance companies and HMOs have always done.
- support reimportation of prescription drugs from countries whose drug standards are equivalent to our own.
Peer Reviewed Science: Creating the Next Generation of Cures
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I support —
- fully funding and depoliticizing the National Institutes of Health and the Surgeon General's office. Research grant applications will be approved based only on the merit of the proposed research.
- reversing the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research on unused in vitro material.
