Tackling the Health Care Crisis

Over the last month, I travelled to 28 Colorado counties to discuss the state of our nation's health care system with local residents, health care providers, and small business owners. Across the state, the message was the same: our health care system is fundamentally broken, and the time for reform has come.

The average American family spends more than $12,000 on insurance premiums each year - a staggering amount considering that the median household income in the United States is around $50,000. As these costs continue to rise, so too will the strain on the budgets of American families.

These rising costs carry with them severe consequences. One Coloradan told me about the anguish he feels because his father, a Vietnam veteran, cannot retire in spite of his age. Without his job, he fears he won't be able to afford health care. An employee in Pueblo told me that her company is struggling to stay afloat because the cost of coverage rose 30 percent last year.

The high cost of health insurance has also contributed to the growing number of uninsured. Today, 47 million Americans lack coverage, 9 million of them children. They are people like the husband and wife from Denver who spent last Christmas desperately worried about the health of their infant son, but, because the out-of-pocket expenses were exorbitant, they had to forego a visit to the doctor.

The growing number of uninsured Americans increases the cost of care for everybody in the system. And though we spend so much on health care, we stack up poorly against other developed nations on outcomes and results: we are last among our peers in preventable deaths, rank in the bottom half of developed nations for life expectancy, and have an infant mortality rate more than twice our peers.

We can and must do better than this.

While a comprehensive solution to our nation's health care crisis will likely fall to the next administration and Congress, I believe there are important reforms we can make before that time. I recently introduced The Consumer Health and Education Transparency Act, which I will push in the coming weeks. This bill will standardize benefits summaries for insurance plans, provide grants to schools to promote healthy habits and help consumers make hard health insurance choices with free, independent advice.

My journeys throughout Colorado have further strengthened my resolve to work tirelessly to fix our broken health care system. I thank all of you who attended the meetings and shared your views and experiences with me. I will be your voice in the U.S. Senate as we debate this critical issue.

Sincerely,

Ken Salazar
United States Senator

Please e-mail me with any questions or concerns you may have 

Senator Ken Salazar's DC office is located at 702 Hart Senate office building, Washington, DC 20510. He has Colorado regional offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Ft. Morgan, Pueblo, Durango, Grand Junction and Alamosa. For contact and mailing info, click here.