The Best Prescription For Health Care Reform

Earlier this year, I began soliciting input about health care reform from Texans from across the state and from every walk of life. I sent personal letters to roughly 300 physician groups, medical societies, and chambers of commerce to solicit their feedback on specific health care policy proposals under consideration in Congress. From Odessa to Tyler to San Antonio, I visited non-profit clinics, workplaces, hospitals, and chambers of commerce. I met with doctors, insured and uninsured patients, hospital administrators, and employers and employees of large, mid and small-sized businesses.

Many Texas families have seen the cost of their private insurance skyrocket. Many are worried about losing their coverage altogether. Seniors in Texas are concerned about the future of Medicare. The overwhelming majority of these Texans told me they believe our health care system needs reform, but they did not want to see a full-scale government takeover of our health care system. I couldn’t agree with them more.

I believe health care reform should focus on lowering costs, which have more than doubled over the past decade. We can lower costs by realigning incentives for providers, so they focus on value instead of volume. We can create incentives for patients to make healthier choices. In Austin, I hosted a roundtable discussion with Whole Foods executives and employees who explained the benefits of their unique consumer-driven health insurance plan, which has lowered their health care costs and opened the doors to quality coverage and more options. Employees shared how the innovative plan has improved their access, saved them money and encouraged them to lead healthier lifestyles.

We can reform the private insurance market in every state to encourage greater competition and more choices, without denying anyone coverage because of a preexisting condition. We can lower costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in our current entitlement programs. In College Station, I hosted a discussion on Medicare's role for future generations at Texas A&M University. I invited experts like Dr. Thomas Saving, Director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University and former Trustee of the National Medicare Trust Fund, to discuss with local young professionals the current state of Medicare and the need for immediate reforms to safeguard it for future generations of retirees who are already investing in the program.

We should also reduce costly defensive medicine by reforming our medical liability laws like Texas has done. In Houston, I visited the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic to see firsthand how the clinic has used $25 million in savings from malpractice reforms to implement an electronicrecords program that has directly improved patient care. I also met with physicians there who have relocated to Texas from other states as a direct result of Texas’ medical malpractice reform law enacted in 2003.