Health Care

Statement on Healthcare Reform

There is no more important challenge facing Congress or our nation than finding a way to making healthcare available, accessible and affordable to every American.

This is not a new issue, but it is one that can wait no longer.  Each year, costs continue to rise, as do the number of the uninsured and under-insured.  Medical bills are decimating families and are the leading cause of bankruptcies in our country.  We are the most innovative, technologically advanced and powerful nation on earth, yet the United States is the only developed country that does not guarantee health coverage for all its residents.  Not coincidentally, we rank first among industrialized countries in the number of unnecessary deaths and near the top in infant mortality.

We must act now.  Allowing our ailing health care system to further deteriorate would be unconscionable.  Over the course of the next few months, Congress will debate a great many proposals.  I encourage you to stay informed and (most importantly) to keep me informed of your views.

The current state of the health care debate in Congress changes almost daily.  The most current information can be found on the Energy and Commerce Committee website.

While the details of any bill are likely to change during the process, there are certain things that I believe are necessary if we are truly to reform the way health care is delivered in our country.  Among these are:

• Health care must be available, accessible and affordable for every American
• Our system must be modern and flexible enough to adapt to changing technologies and medical needs.
• It is imperative that a public option be part of the plan to ensure that everyone is able to get coverage and insurance companies are not allowed to collude with each other at the expense of patients.
• Pre-existing conditions and other disqualifiers must be eliminated.

HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION I HAVE INTRODUCED THIS CONGRESS:

The MRSA Infection Prevention and Patient Protection Act (HR 2937)

There is a public health epidemic in the US that kills more people annually than AIDS, emphysema or homicide - and it is found in our hospitals.  Individuals go to hospitals for treatment to get well, but instead many vulnerable patients are unknowingly—and unnecessarily-exposed to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), a particularly lethal antibiotic resistant staph infection.

Of the more than 90,000 patients infected with serious MRSA infections each year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 85% of these infections are contracted in hospitals. Nearly 19,000 Americans will die from these preventable infections this year.  MRSA does not discriminate based on age, color, or health status. In fact, almost 15,000 pregnant or postpartum women experience an invasive MRSA infection annually.  The costs to treat these infections total more than $3 billion each year.

These infections might be terrifying but there is hope because they are preventable. My bill combats these infections by taking a three-fold approach: screening, isolating, and reporting. It requires hospitals to screen all patients entering high-risk hospital units for MRSA infections and will isolate those that are infected from those that are not.  It also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the CDC to develop common sense practices to prevent MRSA’s spread within hospitals.  In addition, hospitals will be required to report the number of hospital-acquired MRSA cases that occur within their facilities.

The Integrity in Medicare Advanced Diagnostic Imaging Act (HR 2962)

Current law bars physicians from referring Medicare patients for certain health services in which they have a financial interest.  However, there is an exception for CT, MRI and PET scans, leading to the drastic over-use of these machines and fueling the meteoric rise of Medicare costs.  This bill eliminates the profit motive driving in-office diagnostic imaging by preventing physicians from "self-referring" patients to their in-office CT, MRI and PET scan servic offices.

Medical imaging has ballooned to a $100 billion dollar-a-year industry, with Medicare paying for $14 billion of that. Since 2000, doctor-owned imaging machines have been used four times more than those used by radiologists.  This does not only threaten the financial integrity of our health care system, but the health of patients as well.  Americans are now exposed to seven times more radiation than we were in 1980, with much of that increase due to the increase in diagnostic imaging tests.

This bill assures that these life-saving diagnostic tools are readily available to patients who need them while removing the wasteful over-utilization currently taking place.

The Childhood Cancer Survivorship Research and Quality of Life Act (HR 2109)

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), more than two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors experience 'late effects' of the disease or its treatment as they grow older. For many cancer survivors and their families, geographic distance from cancer centers is a barrier to receiving appropriate specialized care. This bill adopts many of the IOM recommendations for improving follow-up care for cancer survivors. It also expands cancer control programs, including surveillance and comprehensive control programs within the CDC that will support state's efforts in this area. In addition, it establishes grants at the National Institutes of Health so that research can be conducted on disparities in survivorship and the development of systems to monitor and care for cancer survivors. Of particular importance, it creates grants to establish and operate childhood cancer clinics so that comprehensive long-term follow up services are available for a larger number of childhood cancer survivors.

The Cord Blood Education and Awareness Act (HR 2107)

The exciting promise of umbilical cord blood stem cells is just being realized. These cells have been used in more than 14,000 transplants worldwide during the last 20 years to treat more than 70 diseases in both adults and children. In addition, they are now showing success in studies involving diabetes, brain injury, cerebral palsy and hearing loss, just to name a few. Because umbilical cord blood stem cells have shown distinct benefits over other sources of adult stem cells (such as bone marrow), they are desired by transplant physicians for treating many forms of cancer, blood disorders and immune diseases.

Despite all of the possibilities associated with these cells, education and awareness is still severely lacking and approximately 95% of umbilical cord blood in this country is discarded as medical waste.  A 2006 study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine found that just 14% of patients receive information on cord blood banking options from their healthcare provider.

This bill will provide expectant mothers across this country with straightforward and easy to understand information about the value of their child’s umbilical cord blood stem cells. It will require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and distribute educational materials throughout the maternal health care system regarding public and private cord blood banking options, medical data on the use and future potential of cord blood stem cells, the costs and availability of various banking or donation options and other pertinent information that will help expectant parents make an informed choice for their child’s cord blood.