Earlier this year the Federal Government took an example from Massachusetts and enacted comprehensive health care reform. The reform guarantees that nearly every US Citizen will have access to health insurance.

However, both Federal and Massachusetts reforms tackled only one of the three core problems with our health care system: coverage. This leaves the problems of costs and quality of care virtually unaddressed. Senator Ted Kennedy once said, “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.” As state Senator, I will work on these two challenging aspects of our health care system.

While there is no easy solution, the consequences of inaction will surely be staggering. If health care costs continue to rise at nearly twice the rate of inflation, Medicare will collapse, state budgets will break and small business will expire. Most important, millions of Americans will be forced to choose between life-saving medical treatments and providing food, shelter, clothing and education for their family.
However, lower costs must not supplant the high-quality medical care that makes our hospitals and doctors world-famous.

We can bring down costs and still maintain our high quality of care.

Twenty cents of every dollar spent in the health care industry is used for administrative costs: marketing for insurance companies and pharmaceuticals, salaries for people to decide who will or will not be insured, and yes, profits. I know we can do better.

This waste of administrative costs is compounded by our fee-for-service system. No one – doctors, hospitals, nurses — gets paid unless you get sick. A system that pays medical professionals for keeping you healthy would dramatically bring down the cost of health care because healthy people need fewer tests, fewer operations and fewer medications, which saves us all from unnecessary expense and preventable illness.