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Health Care
Murray's Work
Lack of Access - Few Doctors Accepting Medicare
Problem: Seniors in Washington State are losing access to doctors because of low Medicare rates. This leads to more
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That’s not
fair! All seniors pay the same rate into Medicare, but those who retire in Washington get far less back. In 2000, the national average of per patient reimbursement was $5500. In Washington State it was only $3900. |
Cause: Washington State is shortchanged by the federal Medicare program. Washington State currently ranks 42nd in Medicare payments per beneficiary. This means doctors in Washington State receive less to treat Medicare patients.
Solution: Provide Washington State with the Medicare funding our seniors deserve. Fair Medicare rates would help seniors find a doctor and would encourage providers to continue serving patients in Washington State.
What Senator Murray has done:
- Medi-Fair Act: Senator Murray wrote the Medi-Fair Act to ensure that all states receive at least the national average of per-patient Medicare reimbursements. She created a coalition of senators from other low-reimbursement states, and she worked to make regional equity part of the Medicare provider package (S.3018);
- Health Care Safety Net: Senator Murray worked to pass this reauthorization bill which continues the National Service Corps to help relieve our shortage of doctors;
- Immediate Relief: Senator Murray helped write the Beneficiary Access to Care and Medicare Equity Act (S.3018), which would provide more than $200 million for Washington State hospitals to increase patient access to health care and begin making Medicare payments more fair.
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Cost of Prescription Drugs
Problem: Seniors in our state cannot afford the prescription drugs they
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By the numbers: The average Medicare beneficiary fills 19-24 prescriptions per year. 38% of Medicare patients have no drug coverage throughout the year. 10-13 million seniors have no prescription drug coverage at all. |
Cause: Today medical care requires prescription drugs more than ever. Unfortunately, some drug makers have blocked cheaper generic drugs by filing frivolous patent extensions, costing consumers thousands.
Solution: Expand Medicare to provide a comprehensive, affordable, voluntary prescription drug plan. In addition, make generic drugs more available.
What Senator Murray has done: As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Murray has worked to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible.
Generic Drugs
- Murray helped write legislation, which makes generic drugs available faster without jeopardizing true innovation. Murray’s legislation would close frivolous loopholes that drug makers have used to delay generics.
- Murray worked to pass the Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceuticals Act in September 2002, which improves market access for generic prescription drugs but rewards research and development.
Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
- Murray worked on the Budget Committee over the past three years to provide funding for prescription drugs.
- Murray worked during the 107th Congress to pass the Graham-Miller-Kennedy bill, which provides an affordable, voluntary, comprehensive benefit that is part of Medicare.
More on Prescription Drugs
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Lack of Insurance
Problem: Many Washingtonians do not have enough health care insurance. We see the impact in overcrowded emergency rooms throughout
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13.7% of Washington residents are uninsured. |
Cause: Health insurance is expensive. With our high unemployment rate, many Washingtonians cannot afford health insurance without the help of an employer.
Solution: Help workers pay for health insurance after they’ve lost their jobs, expand Medicaid and CHIP funds, and offer tax credits for medical expenses.
What Senator Murray has done: As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Murray has:
- Supported Community and Migrant Health Centers – These centers directly provide preventive and primary health care services. Approximately 20 centers in Washington receive federal funding and operate about 60 sites to help underserved communities. Senator Murray worked to reauthorize the program. Over the past two years, she has secured close to $300 million in additional CHC funding;
- Supported Community Access Program (CAP) – Provides funds for community efforts to identify local challenges and develop solutions. More than 22 Washington counties are using this flexible, bottoms-up approach to meet local needs. This year, the state of Washington received a $1.3 million planning and research grant from the federal government, thanks to the efforts of Senator Murray;
- Supported Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – More than 100,000 Washington children and teenagers don’t have health insurance. Senator Murray was an original cosponsor of the Children’s Health Insurance Program enacted in 1997. She also helped expand preventive care including support for immunizations;
- Worked to Increase the Federal Medicaid Match - As a member of the Senate HELP Committee and LHHS Appropriation Subcommittee, Senator Murray has secured increased Medicaid funds for Washington State.
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Shortage of Nurses and Other Health Professionals
Problem: Our state is losing good nurses because of low wages and often overwhelming workloads. As a result, patients cannot get quality health care and hospitals are losing valuable employees.
Cause: Many nurses are leaving health care because of low wages, high workplace demands, managed care that forces nurses to do the job of several work professionals, and greater economic opportunities for women in fields other than nursing.
Solution: To provide quality health care, we need to attract and retain good nurses. This means securing the funding to increase their wages and improve workplace issues.
What Senator Murray has done: Senator Murray has worked hard to secure funding to address the nursing shortage. She has:
- Funded 6 Washington State demonstration projects - As a member of the Health and Appropriations Committees, Senator Murray secured a $1 million appropriation in 2002 to first survey 20,000 Washington nurses about retention issues, and second, set up 6 specific demonstration projects throughout the state to put the best approaches to work for our communities;
- Supported Nurse Reinvestment Act - Senator Murray supported the Nurse Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law on August 1, 2002. The Act will provide increased scholarships, faculty improvements, and the best practices to retain nurses;
- Supported National Nurse Service Corps - Senator Murray supported the National Nurse Service Corps, which provides scholarships and loans to nursing students and grants to boost nurse retention. It became law as part of the Nurse Reinvestment Act;
- Supported National Health Service Corps - Many parts of Washington State have a severe shortage of health care workers. Senator Murray supports the National Health Service Corps, which helps place medical professionals in areas where they are needed most through loan repayment and the “Scholars Program,” which identifies and sponsors future health care providers. Part of the Health Care Safety Net Reauthorization Bill (S.1533), the National Health Service Corps was signed into law on October 26, 2002.
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Healthcare for Working Families
Problem: Many low-income children do not get the health care they need.
Cause: Washington State has a large Medicaid shortfall. As a result, fewer low-income children can get health care.
Solution: Increase the federal contribution to Medicaid in Washington State.
What Senator Murray has done: Senator Murray is a cosponsor of S.138, which would provide a temporary increase in the federal Medicaid match to Washington State. Specifically, the bill would raise the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for Medicaid. FMAP is designed so that the federal government pays a larger portion of Medicaid costs in states with lower per capita income than the national average. In 2003, Murray offered a $40 billion state fiscal relief amendment to the tax bill. Although her amendment was not agreed to, she successfully obtained $20 billion ($10 billion for FMAP) in state aid. Providing temporary additional federal funding to states for Medicaid would allow the states to insure the coverage of those members of the population that need it the most.
In the 107th Congress, Senator Murray cosponsored S.3018, which:
- Increases the federal contribution to Medicaid in our state;
- Allows Washington State to use unspent CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) dollars to provide care for low-income. This change alone would provide another $95 million for poor children’s health care.
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Overcrowded Emergency Rooms
Problem: Emergency rooms in our state are overcrowded. As a result, patients end up wasting time in hospital waiting rooms instead of getting needed care in the emergency room.
Cause: Emergency rooms do not turn away patients. People who have not been able to get basic or preventive health care often end up in the emergency room. When patients don’t have access to insurance or health care, they delay seeing a doctor for small things because of the great expense. When their condition worsens, they go to the only place that won’t turn them away – the emergency room. Their condition, that could have been prevented or treated earlier, is now far worse, requiring more urgent and expensive care.
Solution: Help families get the health care access and coverage they need so they don’t end up in the emergency room.
What Senator Murray has done:
- Expanded insurance for working families and poor children: Senator Murray has helped fund Medicaid and CHIP to provide coverage for those who need it;
- Expanded medical clinics: Senator Murray has funded community and migrant health centers throughout our state;
- Invested in local solutions: Funded the Community Access Program to develop local solutions to health care challenges in more than 22 Washington counties;
- Addressed the personnel shortage: Through the National Nurse Service Corps, the Nurse Reinvestment Act, and the National Health Service Corps, Senator Murray has worked to increase the staff to care for more patients in hospitals and emergency rooms.
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Health Care for Our Nation’s Veterans
Lack of Care
Problem: The Veterans' Administration (VA) health care system is the largest health care system in the country. Unfortunately, it is greatly underfunded. The VA has significant problems attracting and retaining quality doctors and nurses to adequately staff and care for our veterans.
Many veterans must wait weeks and months for diagnoses and treatment of serious health problems. Veterans that are new to the system are often forced to wait over a year to see a primary care physician. During this extensive waiting period, the veterans may suffer additional effects from the lack of treatment.
In addition, a chronic shortage of nurses has affected the ability of the Veterans Health Administration to provide inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care.
Cause: Underfunding and the increasing number of veterans using the system continue to widen the care gap within the VA.
Solution: Attracting and retaining quality physicians and medical care professionals requires sufficient and stable funding to address retention and patient-doctor ratios.
What Senator Murray has done: As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Murray requested an additional $3.1 billion for medical care, increasing the President's budget request from $25 billion to $28.1 billion.
Lack of Access
Problem: Veterans have long expressed their concern about the availability of medical care in the northwest and central regions of Washington state. Today, veterans have to travel extremely long distances, often crossing the Cascades, to obtain care.
Cause: The geographic isolation of these two regions, combined with the lack of funding to build facilities, has created this very dangerous situation.
Solution: A cost effective program designed to reach out to veterans.
What Senator Murray has done: Introduced legislation included in S.2043, the Veterans Long-Term Care and Mental Health Programs Enhancement Act of 2002, creating an outreach program to better serve the northwest and central portions of Washington state. The intent of the program is to reach out to these underserved communities on a weekly basis to provide basic medical care, and perhaps more importantly, to provide early diagnosis and referral to appropriate medical facilities.
Medical Research for Veterans
Problem: The VA is also involved in a significant amount of medical research. For example, the VA leads the way in the identification and possible future treatments of Gulf War Syndrome. The VA medical research community has some of the nation's brightest researchers working to solve many of the health-related issues facing veterans today. To remain an effective research community, the VA must continue to obtain adequate funding to retain the researchers and fund the expensive research activities.
Cause: Continued underfunding jeopardizes the VA's ability to find treatments for health-related problems facing our veterans.
Solution: The VA must be adequately funded to research the variety of health care topics currently under investigation, as well as to initiate work in new areas. As part of this effort, the VA must continue to focus on increasing efficiencies, such as claims processing, to reduce overall costs.
What Senator Murray has done: As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Murray requested an additional $89 million for medical and prosthetic research, increasing the President's budget request from $409 million to $498 million.
Military Health Care Centers
Problem: In recent years, Tacoma's Madigan Army Medical Center has moved to the forefront as one of the top trauma care centers in the nation for veterans, military personnel, and their families. Numerous military trauma cases that were previously transported nearly fifty miles have been successfully treated at Madigan. The center has achieved this success through close cooperation with Tacoma Trauma Trust and other trauma facilities in the region. Due to unforeseen local funding challenges, this outstanding trauma center for military personnel and dependents is at risk for closure.
Cause: This problem is largely based on lower-than-expected funding at the state level. This state budget problem is significantly impacting funding at these health care centers.
Solution: Create a cooperative arrangement between the Tacoma health centers and Madigan Army Medical Center to effectively address the issue of trauma treatment in the area, while also increasing funding at the state and federal levels.
What Senator Murray has done: Introduced language recognizing the very special arrangement that exists in Tacoma, as well as worked with Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA) to secure $1 million in increased funds for Madigan Army Medical Center.