Editor’s note: Colorado Central Magazine contacted most of the legislators in our region asking for their thoughts on the current health care reform debate. Only State Senator Schwartz was able to respond in a timely manner.
As a Colorado State Senator representing Central Colorado, I will not have the privilege of voting on the health care reform bills under consideration in Congress. Nonetheless, I do believe that America’s health care system is not working as well as it could. It is too expensive, has too many restrictions and leaves too many Americans uninsured. I can see this first hand in many parts of my district where hard-working Coloradans struggle to keep their families healthy, even with valuable community healthcare programs and clinics. We must admit that what we have invested in our health care system is not translating into healthier Americans. We spend much more on health care per person than any other country, yet infant mortality is higher and life expectancy is shorter than the other developed nations. Out of the 300 million people in the U.S., 47 million do not have insurance. This is unacceptable, in my opinion.
As a starting point, we can all agree that health reform must be consistent with the values of America and the values of the West. As a state, we struggle to address the needs of people in rural areas where communities have historically lacked access to adequate health care providers and services. During this administration, Colorado has successfully expanded access to care across its diverse regions. House Bill 1293 was passed this year, with the support of our hospitals in both Salida and Alamosa, to expand coverage to 100,000 uninsured Coloradans over the next four years. I co-sponsored House Bill 1111 to increase the availability of health care resources in underserved rural areas, including Central Colorado. Over the last several sessions, one of my priorities has been to improve broadband connectivity to support the delivery of tele-medicine and continuing education opportunities for health care workers in our rural communities.
Despite these gains, private insurance companies have failed to cover hundreds of thousands of people who are uninsured, and we need reform to help fill these gaps. The kind of reform I envision could make health care more accessible, affordable, and effective. We should not tolerate a system that only seeks to insure healthy individuals. The insurance industry must adopt a longer-term perspective by investing in the life-long health and wellbeing of individuals.
One challenge Colorado and other states are facing is tremendous growth in our over 60 population and the resources that will be required for their care over the next several decades. This aging population will require adequate facilities and an expanded health care workforce. One of the benefits of being a member of the Legislative Health Care and Home Care Task Forces has been the ability to carefully assess testimony and data concerning health care costs and accessibility for seniors. The data conclusively shows that providing quality home care for seniors is one of the most effective means of controlling long-term costs in the future.
Finally, much attention has been paid to insurance reform, but we must also continue to reform the actual delivery of care to achieve greater integration and cooperation in order to drive down costs and improve outcomes. Medical providers around Colorado and the nation have much to learn from the networking models established by stakeholders in Grand Junction, Denver, Weld County and most recently in the San Luis Valley, which have been successful in making care less fragmented, less prone to error, and more responsive to the needs of the patient. As these networks demonstrate, we have already made a lot of progress in reforming health care by focusing on aspects that work in the best interest of Coloradans.
What isn’t an option is doing nothing. Maintaining the status quo leaves us with skyrocketing costs, too many uninsured Americans, and a country plagued by poor health. What we need is a system that is more affordable, accessible and effective. We deserve a health care system that gives people choices and guarantees coverage; a health care system that offers peace of mind and optimism about the future; a health care system that takes care of American citizens without discriminating on the basis of age, gender, disability or wealth. That’s the health care reform we are striving to achieve.
