On the Issues
Click here to watch Maureen talk about her views on Healthcare.
Congress must make comprehensive health care reform a reality. While it looks like some progress will be made this session of Congress, there remains a tremendous amount of work to be done to bring coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans and reduce the costs for those who are already insured.
Health care reform is one of the most important actions Congress must undertake to rebuild our economy and support our families. In America, we spend more on health care than any other country in the world, but lag in our health care outcomes. Corporations, small businesses, and individuals who purchase insurance bear the not-so-hidden tax of health care for the uninsured. This is not a prescription for success.
The necessary elements of comprehensive reform include a basic benefits package for every American, insurance reform, payment reform, and an emphasis on prevention.
Essentially, we must do two things: expand coverage and cut costs.
How we expand coverage:
- We must cover all children immediately. No excuses. Children’s health is too important to be sacrificed in endless debate.
- We need to use the cost savings generated by payment reform to expand coverage to adults. By implementing cost controls to reduce premiums, we can, and must expand coverage to the 47 million uninsured Americans.
- A public option, on an equal footing with private options, would be an effective way to expand coverage to those who need it.
- We must make health insurance portable and affordable regardless of pre-existing conditions. We must require health insurers to sell insurance to any willing customer at a community rate.
How we cut costs:
- We must change the way we pay for health care. The 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The federal government must have the ability to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.
Regardless of the final outcome of this current Congressional session, it will take years to accomplish 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 both patients and providers.
Create Jobs:
Fortunately, the economy is now showing signs of early recovery as housing sales improve and the stock market rallies. However, this remains a delicate and critical time. The national unemployment rate is hovering near 10%, making job creation the top priority of our next Congresswoman. It is crucial that we ensure that jobseekers can find employment and that those who are employed do not live in constant fear of having their hours cut or being laid off.
New jobs will be created in small businesses, in the service industry, and in companies fueled by new technologies and scientific innovation. Having incentives for, and removing the barriers to, job creation by small and large businesses is incredibly important. Having well trained or re-trained workers who can readily move into those new jobs is necessary as well. We can also encourage job growth by funding long overdue infrastructure projects like fixing our roads and repairing bridges across the district.
Luckily, to foster job growth and meet the challenges of a competitive global economy, we only need to capitalize on America's world renowned creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity.
Balance the Budget:
Failed economic policies and lack of regulatory practices brought us into a deep recession. Now, America faces a monstrous deficit, and reducing this deficit will be the challenge of the next decade.
Raising taxes could well erase our early economic recovery and end up breaking the backs of average Americans. To reduce this deficit we must hold government to higher standards. Cutting waste, closing unfair loopholes, and getting the most out of every dollar our government spends must be the cornerstones of our federal policy.
Congress should exercise fiscal responsibility by balancing its budget every year. Year in and year out, pay-as-you-go budgeting is a prudent approach for both government and the private sector.
Strengthen our Economy:
To ensure a strong recovery and continued economic growth, we must commit to the following priorities:
- Provide support to Minnesota's great technical schools, colleges, and universities to guarantee an educated work force.
- Support research that yields economic benefits. Minnesota companies like Medtronic and 3M show our state's long history, as well as the tremendous potential, of technological advancement fostering economic growth.
- Plan and invest in infrastructure.
- Provide sensible oversight of our financial system. Assure that financial institutions that are "too big to fail" bear the risks of their business decisions and are not bailed out by taxpayers.
- Assure that the corporate tax code does not disadvantage small businesses.
- Alleviate the burden of rising health care premiums on individuals and businesses by enacting meaningful health care reform.
Only when we address these issues, will we be able maintain our position as the world's strongest economy. The private sector continues to be the engine of our economic strength. Our economic power is crucial not only to our American way of life, but our national security and diplomatic power as well.
Energy independence must be a top priority. Continuing to invest in new technologies for clean energy means good paying jobs and a healthier environment for our children. Wind turbines already dot our 6th District landscape, which we will need to combine with solar power, ethanol, and fuel from biomass to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
American research and business innovation can lead the way to a cleaner, brighter future. With economic incentives in place, and a strong education system, we should, and can be the innovators in green technology, leading the world in alternative energy production.
Energy conservation must become a mainstay of our energy policy as well. We need to work with our utility companies and consumers to create practical solutions focusing on efficiency, conservation and preservation of our air and water quality.
We Minnesotans treasure our natural resources. Clean water and clean air are essential to our quality of life. We all enjoy the unique activities our state offers us, whether it is hunting, fishing, hiking, swimming or boating- we cannot take them for granted.
Protecting and improving the quality of the water we drink and the air we breathe is essential, while supporting hunting and fishing habitats will guarantee that future generations can experience these wonderful Minnesota traditions.
We need policies that protect our resources while encouraging job and business growth. As commercial and residential expansion continues, we need to support this development, while simultaneously preserving our natural resources. Congress must work effectively to strike the delicate balance between these two important interests.
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