Health Care

Cheryl's statement on health care reform:

Sunday night, the House of Representatives passed a historic health care reform bill. It looks like the Senate will follow suit. I'm glad Brian Baird and the rest of Congress listened to the voices of citizens who called, wrote, and organized in support of expanding access to health care. This bill will save lives, will save money, and will help pay down national debt. In Washington's 3^rd Congressional district alone, this bill will prevent discrimination against more than 12,000 people with pre-existing conditions, provide insurance to more than 50,000 uninsured residents, and give tax breaks and other help to more than 16,000 small businesses and 175,000 families. The bill provides millions of dollars in additional Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals in Washington State, making it easier for seniors to access the best doctors and hospitals in the state. It is a strong step towards affordable health care for all.

I will continue to work to ensure everyone has access to affordable health care, and that insurance companies are held accountable. Single-payer health care remains the most efficient, most accessible, most affordable system. Committed citizens must keep raising their voices, educating and persuading our neighbors and representatives, so that next time Congress takes up health care reform, we can pass a single-payer bill.

Single Payer Health Care

Health care is a bipartisan issue. We cannot afford to have our basic human right to a healthy life dictated by an insurance executive. Congress must guarantee that every American has access to affordable health care. The best way to do this is with a single-payer system, a simple system that controls costs, provides solid pay for doctors, and gives every citizen the access to the health care they need. A single-payer system would:

Eliminate co-pays and deductibles, which discourage people from going to the doctor when they’re sick.

Cut administrative costs, which are only 3% under Medicare and 15%-25% under private HMOs

End health care rationing based on income

Guarantee that patients have free choice of doctors, instead of hunting for doctors in their network

Prevent people from being denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions

Send me to Congress and I will co-sponsor a bill creating a single-payer system and provides health insurance to everyone.

I’m not naïve to the political realities of the health-insurance negotiations. Insurance companies and Republican leadership have lobbied hard to protect corporate profits by spreading misinformation - remember death panels? If we can’t get the votes for single-payer health care, we need to take other steps to provide affordable health care to all Americans.

Public Option

A public option is a plan that would compete with private, for-profit insurance plans. The public option is just that - an option. A nation-wide, non-profit public plan would be more concerned with providing care than with increasing profits, and could offer lower premiums. The public option could also negotiate for lower drug prices and pass the savings on to us. With a public option, we could provide Americans with a choice of coverage that would break the strangle-hold insurance companies currently have on our nation’s health care.

Amend ERISA
If we can’t pass single-payer at the federal level, we should amend current law to allow states to pass their own single-payer systems. Right now, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) pre-empts states from enacting single-payer systems on their own. Representative Denis Kucinich (D-OH) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have both offered amendments to ERISA that would free states to create single-payer systems. If the federal government can’t cover all Americans, we must not stand in the way of states doing it.

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Health Care

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