HEALTH: Every family deserves access to high quality health care
- Coverage: Health care is a right - not a privilege. It is appalling that 44 million people in America - the richest country in the world - do not have health insurance. Every family deserves access to high quality health care. We should focus first and foremost on covering children by expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). We are working in Congress to expand health insurance to an additional 10 million children, but thus far President Bush has vetoed each of our bills.
Access: We also have a major shortage of healthcare providers, especially in the Neighbor Islands. Last year, I voted to address this problem by increasing payments to doctors seeing Medicare patients, to help these doctors stay in business throughout Hawaii.
- Cost: Seniors are spending too much money on their prescription drugs. In 2007 we passed a bill to require Medicare to negotiate for bulk prices on these drugs. The President vetoed the bill. Further, I am a cosponsor of a bill which would allow the safe re-importation of drugs being sold in places like Canada for substantially lower prices.
- Research: We should be investing more money into health research to find cures and treatment options to cancer, diabetes, and all the major diseases Hawaii's families struggle with every day.
