Maureen Reed for Congress

With the historic action taken on health care this session, our country has made an important step toward improving health care access in the United States. That being said, we must be cognizant that there is a long road ahead until we complete comprehensive health care reform.

Among the accomplishments in the Health Care Reform law were: banning insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions; allowing young adults to stay on their family insurance plans until age 26; granting 32 million more Americans access to health insurance; and eliminating the "donut hole" in the Medicare drug program.

Our new Health Care Law is an essential start to providing a basic benefits package to every American and protecting our citizens with insurance reform. What it does not accomplish, however, is lowering the cost of health care. The new law does not adequately address two things that are essential to lowering cost: payment reform and putting an emphasis on preventive care. Without these components we have not fixed the problem and will not be able to lower costs for everyone.

Health Care is not a technical problem, we know what needs to be done- it is a political problem. Leaders in Washington must build on these accomplishments and move forward with a focus on prevention and payment reform, with aggressive legislation that actually lowers costs across the health care system.

How we cut costs:

• We must change the way we pay for health care. There are promising pilot programs in the new law, but these must be implemented on a much wider scale. Our current system pays for all the individual services a patient receives (fee-for-service), rather than how much a patient is helped by the services delivered. A more holistic payment approach is necessary. We must abandon piecemeal fee-for-service payment and instead pay for preventive care and best-care.
• Minnesota is highly disadvantaged by the current Medicare payment system. The federal government must change the unfair Medicare payment formula, and it must grant a broad waiver to the State of Minnesota to allow us to put in place comprehensive health care reform. We are one of the very few states capable of doing this quickly and effectively.
• Private health insurers must set and achieve the goal of reducing their administrative expenses by half. America cannot afford, and should not tolerate, paying twice as much for administrative services as any other country. In Minnesota, over 90% of our health care dollars are spent on treatment, but we must further lower our administrative costs, and ensure insurance providers across the country reduce waste.
• The federal government must have the ability to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.

Through the yearlong health care debate Maureen supported a public option when placed on an equal footing with private options and when adequate cost control measures were enacted. Moving forward, we must reduce costs, in order to provide Americans with quality and affordable health care.

Despite the recent accomplishments, it will take years to achieve comprehensive health care reform. As a medical doctor and health care policy leader, Maureen will bring her expertise and perspective to Washington to craft policies that work for families, businesses, and taxpayers.