Fixes to Health Care System is McCaskill Focus at Senate Finance Hearing
Senator, who has proposed legislative fixes to strengthen and improve healthcare, addresses solutions to high costs, pharmaceutical pricing
WASHINGTON – Fixes to the country’s healthcare system were the focus of U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill at a Senate Finance Committee hearing this week. McCaskill, who has proposed a number of improvements to strengthen and improve healthcare, addressed the challenges and potential solutions to high premiums and a deep-pocketed pharmaceutical industry.
“Let me give you the example I give in my town halls,” McCaskill said. “There’s a 27-year-old man, he’s finally making enough money at a machine shop, where there’s no employer insurance, that he can afford one of two things: a monthly health insurance premium, or a monthly premium on a Harley-Davidson. And it probably won’t surprise you to guess that he takes the Harley-Davidson. He gets out on the highway, he gets cut off, he puts the bike on the pavement, he has traumatic brain injuries, and he’s Life Flighted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Nobody stops him in the parking lot, or as he comes into the emergency room and says ‘I’m sorry, you decided you would rather have a Harley than health insurance.’ We take him into the hospital and we give him $2 million dollars, minimum, of traumatic brain care. He goes bankrupt in ten minutes. What is the most efficient way to cover that bill?”
McCaskill continued: “We all have lots of ideas to make [the health care system] better, but at the root of this is a country who has decided… that we are not going to make that man who bought the Harley die. We’re going to take care of him. And how we more fairly and efficiently cover his health insurance costs is in fact what we’re struggling with.”
McCaskill recently introduced legislation to protect Missourians’ access to health insurance—specifically by allowing individuals in “bare counties”—counties with no insurers participating in the individual insurance marketplaces—access to the same insurance plans offered to members of Congress and Congressional staff. The legislation would ensure that individuals in counties with no insurance options on the individual Marketplace have access to insurance through “DC Health Link” where most members of Congress and Congressional staff purchase insurance.
McCaskill also addressed the high cost of prescription drugs, saying: “I’m really fascinated by prescription drug advertising. I’m fascinated that it has gone from $150 million in 1993 to $4 billion in 2010. The average American watching television watches 16 hours a year just watching pharmaceutical ads… by the way, this advertising, telling people what they need to be prescribed from [doctors], by prescription only, is clearly working.”
McCaskill recently teamed up with Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine to pass a law increasing competition for generic drugs and helping lower prescription costs.
Previously, McCaskill helped repeal burdensome reporting requirements on small businesses, introduced bipartisan legislation to address a provision leading to problematic Medicare reimbursements to hospitals, backed a plan to increase healthcare flexibility for small employers, and to address how the law defines small group markets, and backed legislation improving healthcare options for pregnant women.
Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/healthcare to learn more about McCaskill’s work to improve healthcare for Missourians.
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