I am firmly committed to providing genuine access to affordable, quality healthcare for every American. We don’t need a complete overhaul of our health sector, we just need to support what works and change what does not. The time has come to create a balanced, common sense approach that will guarantee that Americans can receive the care they deserve and protect the sacred doctor-patient relationship against government intervention.
To draft a reform that will really work we must first recognize that every patient is different and every illness needs an individualized, personalized approach. It is about treating people with the respect they deserve during their time of illness or disease; not forcing them into a one size fit all bureaucrat system.
Whether you call it a crisis, a problem, or a challenge is not as important as tackling the real challenges to expand healthcare availability, affordability, and ensure the highest quality of care for all people, not just those who are making the laws. Now is not the time to play 'politics as usual' with healthcare, but it is the time for all of us, democrat and republican - liberal and conservative to set aside our agendas and work together to achieve what matters most: more affordable, more accessible, more individualized and personalized healthcare.
I support Interstate Purchasing of Health Coverage. By empowering Americans with refundable tax credits towards the purchase of health insurance policies in any state encourages free market competition, greater personal choices and more affordable and practical coverage; this would ensure maximum value for the consumers’ dollars. This could also reform Medicare, by putting it on more solid foundation and reshaping it into a more market-driven system.
I believe we should change the tax exclusions. At present the structure of health insurance gives preference to the employer-based coverage by awarding free tax benefits to both the employee and the employer. This tax structure only benefits those who receive coverage via their employer or those who also have the biggest benefit packages. Sadly it seems like a soft bailout for the insurance industry.
Like Congressman Ryan I support creating a system of refundable tax credits of $2,300 for individuals and $5,700 for families for the purchase of health coverage. I believe that this will completely transform the market to respond to patients’ needs, which will allow portability of insurance between jobs. This would also allow individuals and families to decide how much of their compensation comes to them in the form of health insurance. This also helps the middle class buy insurance and get extend coverage to those who are uninsured; it would also set in place powerful incentives to reduce the rapid growth in health care expenditures… individuals and families would have the freedom to choose the health plan they want, and to completely own it.
I support a FDA reform. When it comes down to it the issue of tort reform actually begins here. Lack of sufficient resources, manpower, and powerful lobbies are just a few of the many reasons harmful pharmaceuticals get passed through. The FDA failures affect the health of all Americans. Good drugs are not approved or approved after interminable delays. Even after new drugs are shown to be safe, doctors cannot use them with terminally ill patients whose cases are otherwise hopeless. On the other side you have Bad drugs being approved on the basis of a recommendation by panels whose members include pharmaceutical company's consultants.
Part of my Healthcare vision also includes looking seriously at the food we put in our bodies. I do not think we should be the proverbial "fat police" as this interjects the federal government into people’s individual choices. I do believe however that the citizens of this country should be provided with the best quality of food and hones labeling of that food should be provided to empower the people to make the best choice for themselves.
The FDA record with the food supply is almost as bad as their record with drugs. When fresh food turns out to be contaminated, the only solution the Agency can come up with is to expose it to high levels of radiation. not certain to how it is changing the nutritional properties of the food. If irradiated fruits and vegetables are not unappetizing enough, how about cloned and GMO meat, also recently approved. This is unacceptable.
That being said I Support a ban of GMOs and harmful food additives: MSG, aspartame and sodium nitrite in the U.S. food supply. I believe we should require honest labeling of irradiated foods as well as require country-of-origin labeling for all foods sold in the U.S. I believe we should ban the importation of foods using pesticides outlawed in the U.S.
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I really want to hear your feedback on this issue. As an individual running as a Senator, my job would be to listen to you as your representative and then act accordingly upon the expressed will of you, the people. This is why at the end of every issue I have a comment feedback section, because without your direct involvement in this campaign, I would just be another politician promoting my agenda over that of those whom I work for and was elected to represent.
