Welcome candidates to the online debate. Thank you for participating in this forum.
Our first question is from dan@lubar.org:
Health care reform is quietly becoming one of the biggest (..and most expensive!) issues in the lives of many average Americans. And despite the many clear imperatives to pursue a number of much needed health care reforms, it seems like little has really been been done to try to tackle this problem owing to its size & complexity. If you win the 2nd CD seat, please tell us about one thing that you would try to legislate for your constituents that you think would be a step in the right direction on the road to creating real health care reforms in this Country.
Joan Fitz-Gerald:
For the record: I support a single-payer system as the only way for every American to be insured and save our medical system from ever increasing costs.
The health care system in America is broken. Senior citizens cannot keep up with the ever-rising prescription drug prices. And working families are taking on second jobs to keep up with health insurance premiums that are going up much faster than the cost of living. Meanwhile insurance companies are reaping huge benefits by cost containment better known as denial of benefits.
We spend twice as much as other industrialized nations, $7,129 per capita, and have worse overall outcomes. There are 47 million uninsured in America and 700,000 in Colorado. Even more tragic is the number of Americans paying health insurance premiums who, when they need coverage, will be denied benefits. This must change. Every patient deserves a doctor.
A single payer system is the only way to guarantee everyone is insured and at the same time have every American household save money on their health care costs. This means that a single-payer—like Medicare—pays hospitals and doctors instead of hundreds of insurance companies. Doctors and hospitals would compete for your business, not insurance companies by cost containment better known as denial of benefits.
Jared Polis:
I believe that creating a single-payer universal healthcare system is the best way to truly improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare. This can be done with a single piece of legislation. Our health-care system is irrational, expensive, inequitable, inefficient and wasteful, and I strongly believe that quality, affordable health care is a fundamental human right and not a privilege. My priority is to help enact comprehensive health care reform for universal quality health care that improves both the efficiency of the healthcare system, American competitiveness, and most importantly improves the health of all Americans.
Our Failed Health Care System Cannot be Fixed with Incremental Reform: Some Facts
- Only 60% of companies offer health insurance to their employees, down from 70% in 2000, while employees are paying higher co-pays and deductibles than ever before.
- Premiums have almost doubled since 2000.
- Medical costs are spiraling out of control and last year almost 11 million of the insured spent more than 25% of their income on health care. As a result, more than half of all personal bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses.
- Without reform, health care spending will likely double to about $4.1 trillion within the next decade.
- Medical costs are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
The problem, simply put, is we don’t get a bang for our buck – we pay more and get less. We pay six times more per person on administrative costs than similar nations and more than 25% of our health care labor force works in administration.
My program: Healthcare for All
Incremental health care reform cannot solve this crisis. What we need is bold action: Replace the current patchwork with a comprehensive, universal, single-payer, equal-access system that ensures high-quality health care insurance for each and every American.
Will Shafroth:
The first and most important step in creating real health care reforms in this country would be to fully fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). It is unconscionable that 9 million children in American do not have access to health care. Children are the most vulnerable in our society and all of them deserve to have an equal opportunity to a healthy life.
To accomplish this, similar to Senator Obama’s plan, I would require that all children have health insurance.
