|
I am deeply committed to ensuring the availability of needed health care for all our citizens, and have helped to provide health care facilities and services throughout our state. Congress is currently working on a plan to make good health care affordable for more Americans, while keeping the size of our deficits down. Five Congressional Committees have reported health care legislation and the negotiating between the White House and the Congressional Leadership has just begun. Because health care spending accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy the ramifications of reform are enormous. Health care reform is certainly a job in need of doing, but the question is, can we get it right?
What has been singularly unhelpful so far is the fevered pitch of the debate and the demonization of proponents and opponents by one side or the other. Constructive reform will never be accomplished unless the noise level is reduced. Let us hope for at least that much as Congress proceeds. The challenges are many and complex. Can we accomplish reform without creating a huge new bureaucracy? What do we do to restrain the actual costs of health care services? How do we encourage the insurance industry to provide better, more affordable coverage? Should reform be accomplished through the tax code? What about real world problems, like the shortage of doctors in West Virginia, the distance from hospitals and clinics in rural America, or the fear of law suits which fuels expensive over testing by physicians? How do we encourage healthy life styles among our people, which could avoid major health problems in the first place?
This Senator has always believed that access to decent, affordable health care is the birthright of every citizen, and should not be just a privilege for the better off in our society. The challenges vary from state to state, but in West Virginia -- with its difficult topography, large elderly population, low wages, air and water quality issues, occupational diseases, and higher rates of smoking, obesity, and drug and alcohol abuse -- the task of crafting meaningful health care reform becomes especially difficult. An effective health care plan for the nation must be flexible enough to adequately accommodate states which have special needs. Anything else will not be fair and effective and should certainly not be enacted.
|
|
