Health Care

When my brother Bob was diagnosed with cancer at age 39, he had to fight two battles - the cancer and the insurance companies. He died 14 months later with the guilt that his illness brought financial ruin to his young family. Unfortunately, my family wasn't unique and this shouldn't happen to anyone.

Today, 20 years later, it's just plain wrong that 47 million Americans and nearly 130,000 Mainers are uninsured, and that millions more are underinsured and facing skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Back then I saw first-hand how broken the system really is. And that's why, as a Maine Senator I stood up to the big drug and insurance companies to lower costs here in Maine and why no one will work harder to fix this broken system.

Make no mistake - our health care problems do not result from a lack of good policy ideas. In fact, both Democratic candidates for President have strong and creative options on the table. Our health care problems exist because Washington has lacked the political will to take on the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies, and the other special interests that are profiting from the current inefficient and ineffective system. There's no time left for small tweaks and incremental adjustments to this broken system that is bankrupting people and businesses all over the country. It's time for a wholesale revision of our health care system. That's going to take strong leadership and a willingness to fight powerful industry interests. I have a record of success in taking bold ideas and turning them into practical solutions - especially on the issue of health care. When I'm in Congress I intend to use my skills and experience to get the job done and protect the health of our citizens and our economy.

Chellie on Health Care

Introduction
Health Insurance for Everyone
Health Insurance Without the Profit
Health Insurance Under One Roof
Health Care When and Where You Need It
Health Care of the Highest Quality
Preventing Chronic Disease and Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
Health and the Environment
Prescription Drug Costs and Coverage
Health Care as a Top Priority
Chellie's Record on Health Care and Public Health
Entries about Health Care on Chellie's Campaign Blog
Video Clips
News Clips

Health Insurance for Everyone
Providing health insurance for every American citizen is not just a moral and ethical imperative, it is an absolutely essential step in supporting our businesses and creating an environment for our economy to recover and thrive. That's because the design of the current system is inefficient and leads to much higher costs for everyone. When people are uninsured, a predictable cycle begins. First they go without important preventative care; when they get sick they delay getting the care they need; and as they get sicker they must resort to emergency care, which is likely to be so expensive as to be impossible for them to pay. The costs of this charity care then get shifted and shared among other patients and premium payers. The high cost and inefficiencies that result from people being uninsured is apparent. Rather than paying for early and inexpensive care to prevent disease and disability, we are all paying for care after people get sick - at the most expensive point and in the most expensive way. For many businesses, large and small, the cost of health insurance is the single largest expense they incur. Insurance premiums grew by 78% in the last ten years, putting more and more businesses in financial peril. Getting health costs under control has got to be one of this country's top priorities in the next four years. We won't improve health and bring down health care costs until everyone is covered. Health insurance for everyone is more than just the right thing to do; it is a cornerstone for a healthy economy. top

Health Insurance Without the Profit
It's time for the United States to face an uncomfortable truth: the free market is not perfect. This is especially true when it comes to ensuring universal access to a limited resource. There is no place for profit in our access to clean water, safe roads, and fire protection. The same is true for health insurance. Health care is expensive on its own and it's a service that shouldn't be rationed just to those with an ability to pay. Adding an additional cost to cover an industry profit defies logic and common sense. Not-for-profit health insurance works - public insurance like Medicare and S-CHIP are successful federal/state partnerships that deliver a high quality product at a much lower cost. Medicare spends 5% or less of its money on administrative fees, while the average for-profit insurance company spends 16%. Our citizens and our businesses simply can't afford to buy health insurance that includes industry profits. top

Health Insurance Under One Roof
Chellie supports H.R. 676, the United States Healthy Insurance Act, sponsored by Representative John Conyers (D-MI). H.R. 676 is a proposal for a single-payer health care system in America. By bringing all people under one roof of coverage, costs go down as we benefit from system efficiencies and economies of scale. When that one roof doesn't take a profit, costs are even lower. The federal government has already shown it knows how to run a lower-cost system. Public non-profit insurance products like Medicare and S-CHIP should be expanded to cover more people. New products should be added that would offer affordable coverage choices for every American family. And tax credits should be offered to small business that provide coverage to their employees, as well as to working families to cap their expenses at a percentage of income. Bringing health insurance under one roof and ending the fear of "single-payer health insurance" is the type of bold plan and health care system overhaul that is desperately needed to protect people and our economy. top

Health Care When and Where You Need It
Maine is unique in many ways, and our rural nature makes it particularly difficult to both provide and access health care. The federal government could do more to help Maine by providing greater incentives for doctors, dentists, and other health care providers to move to Maine's rural areas and offer health care services. At the same time, more regional and neighborhood health clinics would make health care services more accessible and increase the likelihood that all Maine people would have access to the early and preventative care that will ultimately help get our health costs under control. top

Health Care of the Highest Quality
Having access to affordable health care is still only part of the equation. Patients must also be confident that the health care they are receiving is of the highest quality and consumers need more information to make better choices. Provider and hospital reporting systems must be improved, including collecting data on preventable medical errors, nurse staffing ratios, hospital-acquired infections, and disparities in care. The federal government can lead the way in providing incentives for high performance and improving health information technology. These systems will help reduce costs, coordinate care, reduce errors, and measure quality (all while protecting privacy). Ultimately, most of us will be health care consumers at some point in our lives. We will all want to know we are receiving the highest quality care. top

Preventing Chronic Disease and Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
The road to reducing health costs is well-marked and inexpensive: invest today in preventing disease and experience a huge return on your small investment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 75% of all health costs are related to chronic disease, and chronic disease is mostly preventable. In fact, 80% of all instances of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes are caused from smoking, poor diet, and physical inactivity - all preventable risk factors. The secret lies in focusing on children. Keeping kids healthy today will pay huge dividends in lower costs down the road. Maine has been a leader in reducing tobacco use among kids and the Fund for a Healthy Maine has allowed us to tackle nutrition, physical activity, substance abuse, and oral health in the same aggressive way. These early interventions are low-cost and offer a high return. They are truly one of most powerful tools for ultimately reducing our health care costs. Yet powerful industry forces would stand in the way of healthy children for the sake of profits. The same companies that produce tobacco products often produce and market food and beverages that increase people's risk of becoming overweight or obese. In order to protect our kids and get our health costs under control, we must stand up to the tobacco, soda, junk food, and alcohol companies and get them to stop targeting our kids. Investment and policy change must happen at both the state and federal levels. Chellie was a leader in establishing the Fund for a Healthy Maine, and she will provide leadership in Congress to make sure our kids aren't being put at risk by the products and marketing tactics of powerful industry forces. top

Health and the Environment
We learn more every day about the health effects of the chemicals being put into our everyday consumer products and ultimately into the environment - stain-guards for furniture; plastic softeners for shower curtains and nail polish; and plastic hardeners for reusable water bottles and the linings of food cans. These chemicals can cause cancer, learning disabilities, and infertility. They are especially dangerous in children, yet even toys are not tested for the harmful chemicals they could contain. Inexplicably, there's little government regulation of these dangerous products. It's time to overhaul our chemical regulation system and ensure that products are safe before they go to market. Safer alternatives already exist. We need to require toxic ingredients to be phased out when non-toxic alternatives are identified. Taking on the chemical industry will take aggressive leadership. But our citizens shouldn't have to wonder if the products they buy are putting them at risk in their own homes.

The Maine Legislature - and Chellie's daughter, House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree - has been a leader when it comes to reducing the toxics all around us and our children. Chellie would be proud to lead Maine in the fight to reduce reduce toxics in our environment. top

Prescription Drug Costs and Coverage
It's time to take Chellie's Maine Rx plan nationwide and finally secure affordable prescription drugs for all Americans! Powerful pharmaceutical companies are charging us outrageous prices because our government is prohibited from negotiating with them in order to secure a better deal. Chellie's ready to face off with the drug companies once as she did in Maine (successfully!) in order to protect seniors and so many others who depend on prescription medicines for their health and quality of life. Let's face it; most Americans can't drive to Canada to buy the exact same drugs they use for less than half the price. And they shouldn't have to. It's time to end the stranglehold that drug and insurance companies have on our health and on our pocketbooks. We deserve fair prices and no restrictions on the use of lower-cost generics. In addition, product advertising should be limited in order to further reduce costs and limit self-diagnosis. Chellie has a proven record of success and will make sure Maine people and all Americans have access to the prescription drugs they need at a price they can afford. top

Health Care as a Top Priority
Health care is a concern of virtually everyone, including small business owners, the uninsured, and those people who struggle to afford the coverage that they have. The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world. Unlike every other industrialized country, many of our citizens simply cannot afford to get the care they need. Forty-seven million Americans are uninsured, including 21,000 Maine children and 108,000 Maine adults. Many more pay huge co-pays or go without coverage of all but the most catastrophic of health problems. Meanwhile, serious health concerns continue to plague us. The percentage of youth who are overweight or at risk of obesity has more than tripled since 1980. Seventeen percent of children in the US have one or more developmental problems. Mental illness is often ignored or given limited coverage, even though one in five families are affected by mental illness in the United States today. In fact, untreated mental illness costs $100 billion per year. And women's health issues continue to take a back seat to other health priorities. We must prioritize early detection and treatment of cancer, prenatal and premature birth care, and protecting a woman's right to choose when and how she has children.

It all comes down to power and money, and the solution lies in our willingness to acknowledge that today's system is inefficient, ineffective, and inherently flawed. But the pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and other entrenched special interests will do everything they can to maintain the status quo. Chellie has the skills and experience to take on the powerful industries that are trying to prevent change and protect their financial self-interests. With Chellie in Congress we will finally have a chance to fix this broken system and get the health of our citizens and our economy back on track. top

Chellie's Record on Health Care and Public Health
• Record of commitment to expanding access to health care and prescription drugs, and a willingness to take on tough fights against powerful industries.
• Sponsored and passed the first-in-the-nation Maine Rx, which allowed Maine to negotiate directly with drug companies to secure the lowest prices possible for seniors and others who depend on costly prescription drugs.
• Sponsored Maine's Patients' Bill of Rights, to protect working families, including ensuring their right to hold insurers or businesses accountable for life-or-death decisions.
• Commitment to mental health parity.
• Sponsored legislation to create Office of Women's Health.
• Co-sponsored legislation to create the Fund for a Healthy Maine from Maine's share of the national tobacco settlement. The Fund for a Healthy Maine funds a variety of programs to prevent disease and promote good health, including Maine's award-winning tobacco prevention and treatment program that has reduced youth smoking rates by over 60%.
• Fought to improve nursing home and long-term care and reduce overall health care costs for seniors.
• Opposed the sale of Maine's only non-profit health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine, to the for-profit insurance company, Anthem.
• Received several awards for work on health care policy, including Families USA and Center for Policy Alternatives.

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Read all the entries on Chellie's Campaign Blog about health care.
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Watch Chellie on the public access TV show, "Out in Left Field," discussing Maine Rx: