At the beginning of July, I
\nheld town hall meetings in Umatilla, Polk, Clackamas, Linn, Marion, and
\nMultnomah Counties. At each meeting, the most prominent issue of concern
\nwas health care. <\/p>\n
People of all walks of life are paying dramatically more for
\nhealth care than they used to. These high costs are hurting our families
\nand our small businesses. Last year, we spent 17 percent of our gross
\ndomestic product on health care; in the last nine years, costs have doubled for
\nthe average family. In May, Oregon’s largest insurer announced that the
\naverage small business premium was going up 14.7 percent — on top of a 26
\npercent increase last year. Health care costs are an increasing
\ndrag on our economy and the pocketbooks of working families. <\/p>\n
In my role on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
\nPensions (HELP) Committee, I’ve been working with my colleagues on a plan for
\nhealth care reform that will lower costs, provide consumers with more choices,
\nand increase competition.<\/p>\n
The change would work like this: Americans who are
\nhappy with their current health plan can keep it. But if you don’t like
\nyour plan and you want to look at other options, we’re going to make sure you
\nhave a choice of quality, affordable health plans. This will lower costs
\nand it will also force insurance companies to provide better services to their
\ncustomers. <\/p>\n
One of those options will be a community health insurance
\nplan offered by the federal government. This public option will be an
\nadditional choice to increase competition, lower prices, and keep insurance
\ncompanies honest, so families won’t be entirely at the mercy of the insurance
\ncompanies. Most Oregonians I’ve talked to – and about three-quarters of
\nAmericans according to the polls – like the idea of having a choice of what
\ntype of plan they want rather than having the federal government make that decision
\nfor them.<\/p>\n
Over the next few months, we’ll be engaging in a nationwide
\ndiscussion about the direction of health care in our country. We’ll have
\nbefore us a choice between a system that gets more and more expensive every
\nyear, leaves middle class families one pink slip from losing their health
\ncoverage, and makes our businesses less competitive, or an improved model that
\nincreases health care options, expands care, and lowers costs. I don’t
\nthink we can afford to do nothing.<\/p>\n
We have a once in a generation opportunity to remake our
\nhealth care system for the better. I invite you to contact my office and
\ntalk to your friends and family about your opinion because we can only enact
\nreal change if you make your voices heard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the beginning of July, I held town hall meetings in Umatilla, Polk, Clackamas, Linn, Marion, and Multnomah Counties. At each meeting, the most prominent issue of concern was health care. People of all walks of life are paying dramatically more for health care than they used to. These high costs are hurting our families […]<\/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-7058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsroom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n