Medical Care

Joe Biden On Medical Care

THE BIDEN PLAN:
A PRESCRIPTION FOR
A HEALTHIER AMERICA

Getting More Americans Health Insurance: Senator Biden is committed to reducing the ranks of the uninsured—especially the 9 million children without health insurance—and improving American’s access to essential health care services. He is working to provide health insurance to more Americans by:

• Expanding the SCHIP program to allow more children to participate, and increasing outreach efforts to enroll every child eligible for SCHIP and Medicaid—so that families won’t have to rely on emergency rooms to get needed health care for their children.
• Allowing uninsured Americans the opportunity to purchase an insurance plan that mirrors the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) and by giving people 55 and older the chance to buy in to early coverage under Medicare.
• Providing federal coverage for catastrophic cases so that patients have a limit to the burden of astronomical health care costs and to help lower premiums to make insurance more affordable for businesses and individuals.

Encouraging Prevention and Modernization: The United States spends more money than any other nation on health care—currently around $2.2 trillion—but does not have the expected health outcomes to show for it. Obesity rates have doubled over the last two decades and we currently spend 75 cents of every health care dollar on patients with chronic diseases. Senator Biden wants to bring health care costs under control and increase the quality of care by:

• Placing a greater emphasis on prevention and wellness to contain health care costs associated with chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, osteoarthritis and heart disease.
• Establishing a Comparative Effectiveness Panel to evaluate treatment protocols, medical devices and new technology, and establish best practices for management of chronic diseases.
• Continuing support for and increasing investment in health information technology like electronic medical records.
• Urging the adoption of uniform billing and claims processes to reduce administrative costs.

Strengthening the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program: Senator Biden fought for years to expand the Medicare program to cover prescription drugs with a plan that would provide valuable coverage, be easy to use, and affordable to most seniors. Senator Biden supports improving Medicare’s prescription drug program by:

• Allowing the federal government to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, which could help lower drug prices for consumers.
• Eliminating the benefit gap in coverage, otherwise known as the “donut hole.”
• Speeding up availability of generic drugs.

Increasing Funding for Biomedical Research: Senator Biden understands theimportant role the federal government plays in finding cures for cancer and other diseases by supporting important biomedical research. He is working to strengthen these efforts by:

• Continuing robust funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), building on the successful effort that doubled NIH funding over five years.
• Adopting the NIH guidelines on federal funding for stem cell research.
• Establishing a biotechnology coordinator in the Executive Branch.
• Developing vaccines and other effective responses to potential biological weapons.

Protecting the Privacy of Medical Records: Senator Biden knows how important it is to patients that their personal medical information be kept private. He supports:

• Making sure individuals’ medical information is not used against them or unknowingly sold for commercial profit.
• Ensuring that as we move toward more efficient, cost-saving electronic medical records, privacy interests remain a priority.
• Preventing the use of predictive genetic information, such as whether someone carries the gene for breast cancer, from being used to discriminate against persons in decision-making related to employment or health insurance.

THE BIDEN RECORD: PROTECTION AND PREVENTION

Safeguarding Medicare and Medicaid: Senator Biden has consistently fought efforts to undermine these important programs for our nation’s seniors and low-income citizens, and has worked to enhance their effectiveness through:

• Ensuring an adequate supply of physicians by opposing arbitrary caps on reimbursements and reforming the provider payment system, including voting to override President Bush’s veto of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, which prevented a 10 percent cut in reimbursement from taking place.
• Providing greater access to preventive services to help reduce the number of Medicare enrollees burdened with chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, asthma, hypertension, osteoarthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Strengthening Medicare anti-fraud efforts.
• Allowing disabled patients in Medicaid to receive care in the least restrictive setting possible and to direct their own treatment plan.
• Opposing proposed regulations by the Bush Administration that would have jeopardized services for the neediest Medicaid recipients and imposed a greater financial burden on state governments.
• Supporting increased federal Medicaid funding when states are faced with a fiscal crisis.

Preventing Breast Cancer: Senator Biden has led efforts to detect, treat and prevent breast cancer by:

• Helping to enact the breast and cervical cancer prevention program to ensure mammograms are available to low-income women and women without health insurance, and then expanding the program to offer treatment.
• Urging increased funding for the Department of Defense’s Peer-Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program.
• Encouraging research to look for environmental causes of breast cancer.
• Originating legislation passed in the Senate each year since 1993 recognizing National Mammography Day every October to encourage women to have mammograms.
• Sponsoring legislation to expand Medicare to include coverage of mammograms.
• Fighting to guarantee insurance companies do not deprive breast cancer survivors of reconstructive surgery.

Supporting Cancer Research and Treatment: While Senator Biden has long been an advocate for breast cancer research, he has also supported many initiatives in Congress to promote research and treatment for other cancers. For example, Senator Biden has tried to combat cancer and its devastating effects on patients and family members by:

• Supporting increased funding for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
• Promoting Ovarian and Prostate cancer research through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.
• Sponsoring legislation designed to reduce childhood cancer by establishing programs of research excellence in the area of pediatric cancers at NIH and NCI.

Supporting Mental Health Parity: Senator Biden has long cosponsored legislation to ensure that the limitations on health insurance coverage of mental illness are no more restrictive than the limitations on coverage for other medical and surgical disorders. He also helped efforts to ensure that cost sharing under Medicare is the same for mental health services as it is for other medical services.

Preserving Genetic Non-Discrimination: Senator Biden was a long-time cosponsor of recently enacted legislation that prevents the use of predictive genetic information, such as whether someone carries the gene for breast cancer, from being used in decision-making related to employment or health insurance.

Ensuring Proper Health Care for America’s Veterans: Believing our nation has the highest obligation to provide proper medical care for the hundreds of thousands of brave men and women who bear the physical and emotional scars of serving their country at war, Senator Biden has consistently fought for increased funding for VA health services for all veterans, opposed new fees and co-payments on veterans and has supported medical research of diseases and injuries that disproportionately affect veterans. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that the troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan receive the care they are entitled to, especially those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, the signature issue of these wars. Senator Biden was also instrumental in making sure the VA hospital in Elsmere stays open, as well as opening community-based outpatient clinics in Dover and Georgetown.

Providing Comprehensive Health Services for People with HIV/AIDS: A co-sponsor of the original Ryan White CARE Act, Senator Biden has maintained his commitment to funding research and treatment for people with HIV/AIDS in the U.S., while also supporting international efforts to reduce the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa and developing countries around the world.

Improving Living Conditions for Disabled Citizens: Senator Biden has long championed efforts to allow Medicaid to provide the home- and community-based support services needed by disabled individuals to remain out of institutions. He also fought to allow low-income families with disabled children to buy in to the Medicaid program.

Supporting Graduate Medical Education: Throughout his career, Senator Biden has backed initiatives supporting graduate medical education to ensure that our nation’s health professionals are properly trained. He has opposed cuts in Medicare payments to cover indirect medical education costs of teaching hospitals like Christiana Care and has cosponsored legislation to expand the number of resident physician training positions in states with a shortage of resident physicians. He has also fought for increased funding for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program that provides payments to children’s hospitals like A.I. DuPont to defray the costs of training residents.

Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Nurses: Recognizing the problems a nursing shortage presents to Delaware and the rest of the country, Senator Biden has long supported efforts to provide scholarship and loan repayment programs for nursing students, award grants to nursing schools and health organizations, increase the number of nurse faculty and promote public information programs to encourage people to enter the nursing profession. He also supports increased federal funding for nurse-managed health clinics, like the one housed at the University of Delaware, that provide training opportunities for students and primary care for underserved or vulnerable populations.

Reducing Disparities in Health Care: Eliminating the disparity in access to health care and health outcomes based on race and ethnicity is important to Senator Biden. He has championed increased funding for minority health programs within the federal Department of Health and Human Services, including funding for workforce diversity programs, the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program, the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Office of Minority Health and the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities at NIH.

Promoting Community Health Centers: Community health centers are a vital component of the health care safety net and have been strongly supported by Senator Biden. Throughout his years in Congress, Senator Biden has supported efforts to improve funding levels for Delaware’s federally qualified health centers: La Red Health Center, Delmarva Rural Ministries, Kent Community Health Center, Henrietta Johnson Medical Center and Westside Health.

Sarah Palin On Medical Care

Palin has not made “health care one of her top priorities,” reported the Wall Street Journal, but she does strongly support a “market- and business-driven” approach.  Expanding health insurance “was less of an issue for Gov. Palin, much as it is less significant for Sen. McCain.” Nonetheless, McCain too embraces the ideological dogma that profit-oriented businesses will resolve the inequities in the U.S. health insurance system and somehow cover those who are currently uninsured or underinsured. Among those Americans struggling the most desperately are families.

Personal responsibility & choices key to good health

Our choices often lead to heart disease, diabetes, underage drinking, drugs, violence, and abuse. Soaring health and public safety costs are sometimes unfairly passed on to others. But more importantly, by ignoring or accepting selfish choices that cause the abuse, children, families and entire communities are destroyed. Government cannot cure all ills. And don't assume more laws foisted on Alaskans are the only answer--most "bad activity" is already illegal. We have got to make wise, healthy personal choices, including choosing not to ignore child abuse. I'm counting on families, communities and faith-based groups to step up, together, to help passionately here, too.

Source: State of the State Address to the 25th Alaska Legislature Jan 15, 2008

Palin Introduced Health Care Transparency Act

Palin’s Alaska Health Care Transparency Act established “an Alaska health care information office” to help consumers “make better-informed decisions about health care in the state.” The act also called for the repeal of Certificate of Need Laws, programs “aimed at restraining health care facility costs and allowing coordinated planning of new services and construction.”

Source: Gov Tech, 1/28/2008; National Conference of State Legislatures, 8/21/2008

Palin Did Not Take A Position On Expanding SCHIP Funding

Palin did not advocate for greater federal funding of SCHIP.

Source: Blagojevich Press Release, 2/23/07

Palin Signed Watered-Down SCHIP Bill

Palin signed legislation updating eligibility for Alaska’s SCHIP program, Denali KidCare, to maintain the eligibility level–which had dropped to an effective rate of almost 150 percent of the poverty line due to inflation. However, by limiting eligibility to families living below 175 percent of the poverty line, Alaska’s eligibility criteria are still among the lowest in the nation. Palin did not support legislation to expand eligibility to higher levels.

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures, 6/2008; Kaiser Network, 5/22/2007; Anchorage Daily News, 4/15/2008

Palin Failed To Support A Bill To Cover All Alaskans

While governor, Palin “did not get behind the most significant piece of health legislation offered — a proposal to ensure that all residents have health insurance, without disrupting the coverage that many Alaskans already have.”

Source: Anchorage Daily News, 5/17/2008

Doctors should manage health care, not bureaucracies

I established our Health Care Strategies Council and we'll pursue many of their recommendations, starting with our Health Care Transparency Act, requiring that consumers get better information about prices and quality of their own care. We will allow competition. Under our present Certificate of Need (CON) process, costs and needs don't drive health care choices--bureaucracy does! Our system is broken and expensive. We propose, as many states have, eliminating the CON, to increase choice and to manage rising costs. Currently nine CON lawsuits are adversely affecting consumers. Alaskans want health care in the hands of doctors, not lobbyists and lawyers. We are considering what other fiscally conservative states have done to incentivize employers to provide medical insurance for employees, based on the free market.

Source: State of the State Address to the 25th Alaska Legislature Jan 15, 2008

Flexibility in government regulations to allow competition

I look forward to working with affected parties to find the necessary solutions that will lead to more affordable health care for Alaskans. I support flexibility in government regulations that allow competition in health care that is needed, and is proven to be good for the consumer, which will drive down health care costs and reduce the need for government subsidies. I also support patients in their rightful demands to have access to full medical billing information.

Source: Campaign website, www.palinforgovernor.com, "Issues" Nov 7, 2006