Health Care

It’s getting harder to find a doctor in Eastern Washington and for those who do to afford medical care.  One of my top priorities is increasing access to quality, affordable health care.  This does not mean a one-sized-fits-all, government-run health care.  Expanding the health care role of the federal government will only lead to higher costs, fewer medical discoveries and treatments, delays in access to care, and excessive and expensive increase in paperwork and bureaucracy.

Instead, I believe Americans deserve a health care system that is characterized by improved prevention, coordinated care, electronic health records, cutting-edge treatments and lower costs.  We should challenge Americans to be healthy to refocus our health sector on encouraging wellness and prevention, not just paying for acute care after people get sick.

Accomplishments:

• Sponsored a five point plan to improve access, affordability, quality, accountability and choice, as an alternative to a government-run, one-size-fits-all health care system for America;
• Supports finding a meaningful, long-term solution that will accurately reimburse physicians for the care they provide to our Medicare beneficiaries and veterans;
• Working to strengthen the WWAMI program and other programs that recruit and train primary care doctors to practice in underserved areas;
• Introduced MAP IT legislation with Rep. Adam Smith—a demonstration project to use health IT for chronic diseases (such as diabetes) within Medicaid;
• Co-sponsored The Affordable Health Care Expansion Act (H.R. 5784) to provide tax credits to help low income families buy and pay for health insurance;
• Supports Association Health Plans to allow businesses to band together to purchase health insurance;
• Championed the restoration of funding for vital Title VII programs, which provide training for primary care doctors and dentists;
• Co-sponsored the Promoting Health Information Technology Act (H.R. 3800), to create a streamlined process to adopt interoperability standards, privacy policies and provide resources for adoption of health IT; 
• Member of the Congressional Rural Health Care Coalition and founded the Congressional Community Pharmacy Caucus