Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

Making Health Care More Affordable and More Accessible

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. I proudly worked to pass this historic legislation because I believe our health care system is broken and for too many Michigan middle class families, quality, accessible, and affordable health care coverage is too often out of reach. The promise of the American Dream continues to slip away when families go bankrupt trying to afford health coverage, insurance companies are permitted to raise the cost of health care for women, and children who have pre-existing conditions are denied coverage. The Affordable Care Act goes a long way to correct those problems. By working together, we can fix the law to make sure it works to address problems in our health care system and helps make quality health care affordable for both Michigan families and businesses.

To learn more about the resources available to you or signing up for health insurance under The Affordable Care Act, please go here.

But there's still a lot of work left to be done - here are some of my other top health care priorities:

Investing in the health of low income children: In 2009, I worked with President Obama to pass an extension and expansion of S-CHIP, also known as MIChild in Michigan. This common sense legislation has provided 83,000 low income children in Michigan with access to necessary health care coverage.

Fighting against a plan to end Medicare as we know it: In Congress, the Republican Majority has put forth a budget that would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program. We simply cannot allow this to happen, that's why I'm fighting to stop this misguided plan and preserve Medicare for future generations.

Ensuring patients can continue seeing their doctors by fixing the SGR: For far too many years, Washington has failed to develop a long term solution to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals. By failing to get it done, Medicare patients face an annual risk of being unable to continue seeing their doctors; this has gone on for far too long. I'm committed to working across the aisle to develop a long-term solution that will work for our doctors and our patients.

Source