Health Care Reform Is a Necessity

Jeff Smith will fight for universal affordable health care, affordable long-term care, and a simpler, more affordable prescription drug program.
Our health care system is a mass of contradictions. The creativity, dedication, and resourcefulness of our doctors, nurses, researchers, and medical engineers produce miracles every day, but the system's best features are available to too few, and inconsistently. For the United States to be the only western democracy that does not provide a minimum level of health care to its citizens is a shame. For up to 47 million Americans, most of them children, to go without basic care, is neglect that we cannot afford, morally or financially. Debating whether health care is a "right" misses the point: establishing comprehensive health care for everyone is a choice that smart societies make. In this case, doing the right thing is the smart thing.
Because of the magnitude of this decision, we need to explore some of the best thinking (and re-thinking) on this system that is so necessary but in so many respects so unsatisfactory. The principal components for change I am looking at are:
  • Universal Health Care: I believe that a national single-payer system, like Medicare, is the most sensible, cost-effective approach to health care for all Americans. Moreover, one national-level system makes more sense than a patchwork of differing state systems. I disagreed strategically with abandoning single-payer as the goal. To the extent that that's been done, I strongly support the inclusion of a public plan as a component of any national health care reform. It's important that any interim proposal does not increase costs for business and individuals. If the Congress proves incapable of making meaningful progress toward a national system that increases access and reduces costs, then Illinois must look at what some other states have done for their citizens. This would be an extraordinary challenge given state finances, but neglect is something we truly cannot afford.
  • Portable insurance not tied to the employer.
  • Avoidance of unfunded mandates on business
  • Making it easier, not harder, for doctors to deliver medical services, by reducing administrative burdens and costs, and exploring creative ways to de-emphasize fault in favor of patient-oriented outcomes
  • Creating incentives to doctors to locate and practice in under-served communities
  • Helping, rather than burdening, the States
  • Addressing the looming crisis in long-term care cost and availability, primarily by moving from a welfare-based paradigm toward a more universal and holistic approach
  • Re-thinking the confusing Part D program for prescription drugs, and expanding the governmental toolkit for reducing the cost of prescriptions
  • Increasing transparency in funding for medical studies and the relationship between treatment and vendors
  • Women's basic health care must be a priority, and that means that women must not be worse off under health care reform. Reproductive health care, disproportionately expensive for women, should be covered such that women can access that care through providers they trust. Health care reform should increase access to care, not decrease it. Access to contraception, in particular, reduces unwanted pregnancies.
Finally, we need to change how we think about health. Runaway medical costs stem largely from the uniquely American commercialization of health care, and its intersection with a culture of sensationalization. We need to re-center health care on the patient and the community rather than actors' self-interest, identify where markets do and don't work for health care, and cultivate achievable expectations of health. This culture change should occur simultaneous with increased focus on proactive wellness.
— Jeff Smith


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