Healthcare Affordability

The United States currently has 46 million uninsured individuals, almost 3 million of whom live in New York. Many of these individuals cannot afford to purchase private health insurance due to annual double-digit increases in insurance premiums. Spiraling health insurance costs also burden small businesses and employers, who are increasingly unable to offer health insurance benefits. Companies that are able to provide benefits find it necessary to pass more of the cost of insurance on to their employees. In 2003, two-thirds of companies with 200 or more employees responded to increasing costs by requiring their employees to pay more for their own coverage and dropping coverage for particular services.

One solution to making healthcare more affordable is to allow uninsured individuals to buy into existing health insurance programs. I support efforts that would allow families to buy into the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which would help 5.3 million uninsured parents gain access to insurance and lower prices for healthcare services. I also support efforts to help small businesses provide insurance to their employees using mechanisms such as tax credits and large, voluntary purchasing groups.

I am deeply concerned about skyrocketing prescription drug costs. The price of medications is rising faster than inflation, consuming a larger and larger portion of the incomes of seniors, the chronically ill, and low-income individuals. The increasing cost of these drugs means that many New Yorkers face tough choices about their health, and may do without medications in order to pay for other basic necessities, like food and housing. I believe that we need to make prescription drugs more affordable. I am working on legislation to improve the Food and Drug Administration’s process for approving generic biologic drugs, such as those used to treat cancer. I also believe that we need to make drug reimportation safe and legal.