Recently,
\nI held a number of town hall meetings in Eastern and Central Oregon. Whether I
\nwas in Crook County, Wallowa or Harney, the number one issue on people’s minds
\nwas health care reform. Oregonians want to know what will change, what will
\nremain, and how much this will cost individuals, businesses, and the country.
\n <\/p>\n
In the reform plans currently in front of Congress, there are several
\nstrategies that will lower health care costs while encouraging market-based
\ncompetition and choice:
First, we need to make it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate based
\non pre-existing conditions. And for Americans who have insurance, we need
\nto stop providers from delaying, capping or eliminating coverage just when
\npeople need care the most. It is unacceptable that insurance companies
\ncan drop someone from coverage when they get sick or injured even if they’ve
\nbeen reliably paying premiums for years. <\/p>\n
We’ll
\nalso make insurance more portable so that you can keep your plan if you lose
\nyour job or want to switch to a different job. And we’ll end the low
\nlifetime limits that throw even insured families into bankruptcy because
\nthey’ve exhausted their available benefits.
A crucial component for lowering costs is increased competition. We will
\ngive individuals and small businesses more choices by creating an insurance
\nmarketplace. This marketplace will enable them to band together in one
\nlarge group to get a better deal from insurance companies instead of having to
\ntry to buy a policy on their own in a confusing and fragmented insurance
\nmarket. Each person in the pool will then be able to choose whichever
\nplan they prefer. This is how the health plan for federal employees and
\nMembers of Congress works.
The other major mechanism for increasing competition is the creation of a strong
\ncommunity health plan – or public option. Consumers would still be able
\nto pick from among private insurers if they want, but the community plan would
\ngive them another choice to improve service and drive down costs. <\/p>\n
El
\nhealth care plans being developed in Washington will lower costs while
\nstrengthening our health care system for those who have insurance and extending
\ncare to those who don’t. Now is the time to move forward and improve our
\nhealth care system for all Americans.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I held a number of town hall meetings in Eastern and Central Oregon. Whether I was in Crook County, Wallowa or Harney, the number one issue on people’s minds was health care reform. Oregonians want to know what will change, what will remain, and how much this will cost individuals, businesses, and the country. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsroom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n