Improving health care continues to rank among my top priorities. Maine is in the midst of a growing health insurance crisis, with 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 corporation, the soaring cost of health insurance is a common concern.
Since 1999, Maine's employers have faced soaring premium increases. These increases have been particularly burdensome for small business owners. They are caught in a cost squeeze: they know that if they pass on the premium increases to their employees, more of them will decline coverage. Yet, these small businesses simply cannot afford to absorb double-digit increases of 20, 30, or 40 percent, year after year. To address this problem, I will advocate passage of a seven-point, bipartisan plan I wrote that combines a variety of public and private approaches to expand access to health insurance. It would bring millions more Americans into the insurance system by providing tax credits for small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees and by helping employers to band together to bargain for cheaper rates. It would also boost funding for community health centers, which provide primary care to uninsured and under insured Americans. Moreover, it would eliminate inequities in Medicare reimbursements that penalize rural states like Maine and cause cost-shifting that drives up private insurance rates.
Another factor driving up the cost of health insurance is the soaring cost of prescription drugs. Last summer, we scored an important victory when the Senate approved bipartisan legislation I co-authored to close legal loopholes in our patent laws to speed access to more affordable generic drugs. Official estimates show that our bill would cut our nation's drug costs by $60 billion over the next ten years. While we were unsuccessful in convincing the House to follow suit, momentum for our legislation is building, and I will continue to press for its enactment this year.
The Senate also should pass a prescription drug benefit for our seniors. It's past time that Medicare be modernized. No senior should have to choose between paying the bills and buying the pills that they need to keep healthy. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to craft an affordable, meaningful prescription drug benefit that is available to all Medicare recipients.
To bolster our state's and our nation's economy, I will work with the President and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to craft an economic growth package. The package should extend unemployment benefits dislocated workers and help them find good jobs. It should also be designed to kick start the true engine of our economy, small businesses. We should provide targeted tax relief to motivate investment in small businesses and double the current small business expensing limit to help entrepreneurs purchase the equipment and fixtures they need to start or expand a small business. In addition, I will press for passage of legislation I wrote and that the Senate overwhelmingly approved earlier this year, to help states facing budget shortfalls avoid cutting social service spending and raising taxes. My legislation would provide $9 billion in state fiscal relief through an increase in the Medicaid matching rates and a flexible social services block grant.
Shoring up our homeland security and continuing to ensure that our armed forces are the best paid, equipped, and trained in the world also rank among my priorities for 2003. As chairman of the Governmental Affairs committee, I will be focused on the implementation of the new Department of Homeland Security. The new agency will work to secure U.S. borders, ports, and critical infrastructure. It will synthesize and analyze intelligence from multiple sources, lessening the possibility of intelligence communication breakdowns. And it will coordinate security activities now undertaken separately by agencies like the Customs Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service - so that the resulting effort will be greater than the sum of its parts. While creating a new Department in and of itself will not be sufficient to safeguard our homeland, it will bring much needed focus and coordination to the task. The Committee's first order of business will be to conduct confirmation hearings for Tom Ridge, whom the President has nominated to be Secretary of the new Department.
Improving access to affordable health care and prescription drugs, improving our economy, and strengthening our national defense are only a few of the many challenges that we will confront during the 108th Congress. On these issues and other challenges, I will continue to work with Senators on both sides of the aisle for all Americans.