Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Senate Finance Committee, Pt.4 -- For Health Care Reform

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This is the final fart of the series and follows Part 3 containing Senator Salazar’s statements before the Senate Finance Committee concerning health insurance and health care reform:

"As I listen to discussions of health care reform, I can come to only one conclusion - our goal must be universal access to affordable, high quality health care for every person in this country. While I am sure that my colleagues on the Committee may have differing perspectives on how we can achieve this goal, I am convinced that there are common principles that can tie us together and hope that former Secretaries Shalala and Thompson can help us identify those areas. Prevention, health technology, primary care, chronic care coordination - these are concepts that we know hold value - and the time has come for us to delve into the details of incorporating them into our health care system and realigning the system's incentives to make sure they are addressed.

"Thank you again to our distinguished witnesses for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us today. I look forward to hearing your insights on how to fix America's broken health care system and hope to learn a great deal from our discussion today."

It is encouraging to know that this good senator is so in tune with the realities of our plight. It is wrong to blame the health insurance industry simply because they are directly involved. They, too, are caught in the middle of trying to provide for our struggling economically-depressed population, while having to survive the skyrocketing costs of health care. The only resolve must be comprehensive reform, not simply pitting the already hard-pressed health insurance industry against itself. Certainly serious reform is needed in this area, but “squeezing blood out of a turnip” is not the way. The reform also needs to encompass health care costs, availability to all our population and the abolition of forcing Americans into bankruptcy over medical bills.