As we look forward to the 110th Congress, one of my top priorities is to
expand access to affordable health care for all Americans. There are still
far too many Americans without health insurance or with woefully inadequate
coverage. As many as 46 million Americans are uninsured, and millions more
are underinsured.
Health care coverage matters. The simple fact is that people with health
insurance are healthier than those who are uninsured. People without health
insurance are less likely to seek care when they need it, and to forgo
services such as periodic check-ups and preventive services. As a consequence,
they are more likely to be hospitalized or require costly medical attention
for conditions that could have been prevented or treated at a curable stage.
Maine is in the midst of a growing health insurance crisis, with
insurance premiums rising at alarming rates. Whether I am talking to a self-
employed fisherman, a displaced worker, the owner of a struggling small
business, or the human resource manager of a large company, the soaring cost
of health insurance is a common concern.
These cost increases have been particularly burdensome for small
businesses, the backbone of Maine’s economy. Maine small business owners want
to provide coverage for their employees, but they are caught in a cost
squeeze. They know that if they pass on premium increases to their employees,
more of them will decline coverage. Yet these small businesses simply cannot
afford to absorb double-digit increases in their health insurance premiums
year after year.
The problem of rising costs is even more acute for individuals and
families who must purchase health insurance on their own. Monthly health
insurance premiums in Maine often exceed a family’s mortgage payment.
Clearly, we must do more to make our health care system more efficient and
health insurance more available and affordable.
I have joined my colleague from Louisiana, Senator Mary Landrieu, in
introducing bipartisan legislation, the Access to Affordable Health Care Act,
which combines a variety of public and private approaches to make quality
health care coverage more affordable and available.
Since most Americans get their health insurance through the workplace, it
is a common assumption that people without health insurance are unemployed.
The fact is, however, that as many as 83-percent of Americans who do not have
health insurance are in a family with a worker.
Uninsured working Americans are most often employees of small businesses.
In fact, some 63-percent of uninsured workers either work for a small firm or
are self-employed. Smaller firms generally face higher costs for health
insurance than larger firms, which makes them less likely to offer coverage.
The Access to Affordable Health Care Act will help these employers cope with
rising costs by creating new tax credits for small businesses to make health
insurance more affordable. It will also provide grants to help businesses
form group purchasing cooperatives. These cooperatives will enable small
businesses to band together to purchase health insurance jointly. This will
help to reduce their costs and improve the quality of their employee’s health
care.
The Access to Affordable Health Care Act will also expand access to
affordable health care for individuals and families. One of the first bills
that I sponsored when I came to the Senate was legislation to establish the
State Child Health Insurance Program, which provides insurance for the
children of low-income parents who cannot afford health insurance, yet make
too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Since 1997, this program, which is
known as SCHIP, has contributed to a one-third decline in the uninsured rate
of low-income children. Today, more than six million children – including
approximately 14,500 in Maine – receive health care coverage through this
remarkably effective health care program.
Our legislation builds on the success of this program and gives States a
number of new tools to increase participation. States would have the option
of covering the parents of the children who are enrolled in programs like
MaineCare. States could also use funds provided through this program to help
eligible working families pay their share of an employer-based health plan.
In short, the legislation will help ensure that the entire family receives the
health care they need.
Our legislation also strengthens the health care safety net by increasing
funding for Community Health Centers, which provide critical primary care
services to millions of Americans, regardless of their ability to pay. And,
it addresses inequities in the Medicare system that have hurt rural states
like Maine.
Finally, health insurance alone is not going to ensure good health. As
noted authority and physician Dr. Michael Crichton has observed, “The future
of medicine lies not in treating illness, but preventing it.” Many of our
most serious health problems are directly related to unhealthy behaviors –
smoking, lack of exercise, and poor diet. These three major risk factors
alone have made Maine the state with the fourth highest death rate due to four
largely preventable diseases: cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung
disease and diabetes. These four chronic diseases are responsible for 70-
percent of the health care problems in our state.
The Access to Affordable Health Care Act therefore contains a number of
provisions designed to promote healthy lifestyles. An ever-expanding body of
evidence shows that these kinds of investments in health promotion and
prevention offer returns not only in reduced health care bills, but in longer
life and increased productivity. The legislation provides grants to States to
assist small businesses with “worksite wellness” programs for their employees.
It also authorizes a grant program to support new and existing “community
partnerships” such as the Healthy Community Coalition in Franklin County, to
promote healthy lifestyles among hospitals, employers, schools and community
organizations.
The Access to Affordable Health Care Act outlines a blueprint for reform
based on principles upon which I believe a bipartisan majority in Congress
could agree. The plan takes significant strides toward the goal of universal
health care coverage by strengthening the health care safety net and by
bringing millions more Americans into the health insurance system.