Rep. Mike Thompson

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Health Care

Access to quality, affordable health care is a critical part of American life. Unfortunately, one in six Americans is without health insurance. This equates to more than 43 million Americans, or roughly the cumulative population of 24 states plus the District of Columbia. Close to 12 million Californians went without health insurance for all or part of 2002 and 2003. These distressing figures coincide with rising health costs and insurance premiums. For the third year in a row, health premiums have experienced double digit increases, making it harder than ever for workers and their families to afford health insurance coverage. Next year, premiums paid by Medicare beneficiaries will witness the largest dollar increase in the Medicare program's history, raising the monthly expense by $11.60 to $78.20.

Prescription Drugs

Prescription drugs are an essential part of increasing health care costs. For millions of Americans, especially senior citizens on fixed incomes, they are costly and hard to afford. It is estimated that American seniors will spend close to $2 trillion dollars on prescription drugs over the next ten years. When the Medicare prescription drug law is implemented in 2006, an even larger portion of our seniors' Social Security annual COLA will be consumed by rising health care costs. International comparisons of drug prices confirm that American consumers often pay more for prescription drugs than do citizens in other countries.

Americans pay anywhere between 30% and 300% more for prescription drugs than do their neighbors in Mexico and Canada. For example, a monthly supply of a cholesterol medication costs only $37.20 in France, but a senior in the U.S. without drug coverage must pay $116.99, more than three times as much. Similarly, a monthly supply of ulcer medication costs only $42.00 in the U.K., compared to $117.99 for uninsured American seniors, almost three times as much.

In an effort to make prescription drug care more affordable, Congressman Thompson introduced legislation that would allow for the safe reimportation of pharmaceuticals from Canada. The bill guarantees that seniors will not be exposed to drugs that are counterfeit or mishandled. It also ensures that seniors would be able to obtain these drugs for prices far below those they are currently paying. Congressman Thompson's alternative is less restrictive than the Medicare prescription drug bill signed by the President in 2003 that allows for the importation of prescription drugs from Canada only if the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) certifies that such importation will be safe and not impact the public health in any negative way. As it stands now the Secretary of HHS is unlikely to certify this.

Nursing Homes

To reduce the incidence of abuse against seniors residing in our nation's nursing homes, Congressman Thompson introduced legislation that would allow long term care facilities to perform background checks on all potential direct care workers at no cost to the prospective employee or to the facility. The recently passed Medicare bill authorized a pilot program based upon this legislation and Congressman Thompson is now working with a bipartisan group of legislators to fund this pilot program to the maximum extent possible.

Medicare Reimbursement

Congressman Thompson has worked on legislation that moves toward correcting low Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians in Sonoma County. Under a recently passed appropriations measure, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) must present a plan to Congress by January 1, 2005 for fixing a decades old discrepancy in the reimbursement rates paid to doctors in Sonoma and eight other California counties.

Telemedicine

In previous Congresses, Congressman Thompson has secured funding to support the implementation of a comprehensive telemedicine initiative, the North Coast Telemedicine Network. Telemedicine enhances medical care services to rural regions of the District by enabling a consulting physician at one location to observe a patient or interpret data at another location via two-way audio or video telecommunications links.

Nursing

As the husband of a nurse, Congressman Thompson is well aware of the problems faced by the nursing community. Additionally, as a member of the Congressional Nursing Caucus and, as chair of the Blue Dog Coalition's health care task force, Congressman Thompson works with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to address the issues of workforce shortage and workplace conditions.

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Health Care

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