Health Care

Working to fix a broken health care system

The health insurance system in Illinois and the United States can only be described as broken. Costs continue to skyrocket, imposing an increasing burden on employers and individuals. More than 46 million Americans, including 1.8 million Illinois residents, lack health insurance, and millions more have inadequate coverage that they fear of losing. And, despite the fact that the U.S. spends up to twice as much per person on health care as other industrialized countries, we lag behind on critical measures of health, such as infant mortality and life expectancy.

While our health care crisis will eventually require a national solution, I believe that Illinois must lead the way until the federal government acts. I believe that the ideal cure is a single-payer Medicare-for-all system that will provide health insurance to all Illinoisans while protecting our right to choose our own doctors and hospitals. Until such plan is enacted, I will work to expand health insurance coverage and reduce health care costs in Illinois.

A moral crisis

Our health care crisis is threatening the dreams of America's families. Because our current system ties health insurance to employment, people are forced to make career choices based on their health care needs rather than their ambitions, and live in fear of losing their health insurance if they have to change jobs. In addition, medical bills drove more than 40,000 Illinoisans into bankruptcy in 2004 and a serious illness can easily lead to the loss of a car or even a home. Many more residents or our state, particularly senior citizens, have to choose between buying groceries and filling their prescriptions.

Unnecessarily Costly

The cost of health care affects all of us, whether we are covered or not. Since the year 2000, health insurance premiums in Illinois have increased by more than 85 percent. At the same time, deductibles are on the rise, and health care spending per person is projected to double in Illinois over the next decade. These costs impose a huge burden on employers, limiting the ability of small businesses and other companies to stay afloat, much less to create new jobs by expanding their operations. Many of these expenses, however, are avoidable, as it is estimated that 31 percent of health care spending goes toward paperwork and bureaucracy as doctors and hospitals navigate our complicated private insurance system.

Comprehensive coverage as a high-return investment

In the long run, society pays dearly for our broken health care system-in both lives and dollars. Living without health insurance is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. People who lack health insurance wait longer to see a doctor, hesitate to fill costly prescriptions, rarely seek preventative care, and rely on costly emergency room care. Early detection does not only make the difference between life and death: it also costs less. Our current system, which dissuades consumers for seeking preventive care, and consequently fails to provide adequate incentives for medical students to go into the field of primary care, drives up costs to society while simultaneously damaging public health.

We must equip our doctors with a database that will serve as an information infrastructure to systematize and improve overall care. This will enable us to integrate the various components of our health care industry, including primary care, specialties, and mental health care. Mental health parity is a critical aspect of any just health care plan, and it would be a great financial boon as well: untreated mental illnesses are estimated to cost America more than $100 billion every year. This is in keeping with the pattern that doing the right thing with health care policy is economically wise as well: all that we lack is the political courage to make it happen.

Taking action in Springfield

As State Representative, I will fight to fix our broken health care system. In particular, I will support legislation to provide Medicare-type health insurance coverage to all Illinoisans. Such an approach would protect peoples' rights to choose their own doctors and hospitals, free employers from skyrocketing health care costs, and use the administrative savings created through having a single insurer to cover the uninsured.

While we are working to establish Medicare for All, I believe we must also continue to do what we can to help people navigate through our current system. We have already made some progress in Springfield, most notably with All Kids, which provides comprehensive health care to children, and Illinois Cares Rx, which helps seniors buy prescription drugs. These programs are invaluable, and we should support and expand them as we work to make health care accessible to every member of our society.