Boasso Unveils Health Care Reform for Louisiana Families

Press Release

Boasso Unveils Health Care Reform for Louisiana Families

Focuses on Ensuring Access to Affordable, Quality Care for All Louisianans; Provides Prescription Drug Assistance to Seniors; Places Emphasis on Primary and Preventive Care; and Strengths Our Charity Hospital System

Pledging to ensure that every Louisiana citizen has access to affordable, quality health care, State Senator Walter Boasso (D-Arabi), Democratic candidate for Governor, today unveiled his Health Care Reform plan for Louisiana families.

Boasso is proposing several initiatives to ensure that every citizen has an insurance policy and is provided top-quality care. Those initiatives include:

* Providing every Louisiana citizen without insurance a health care policy by using uncompensated care funding coupled with best practices for serving the patient
* Supporting and expanding the LaCHIP program for uninsured children and streamline the bureaucratic process to enroll children into LaCHIP;
* Providing options to cover more small businesses and the self-employed;
* Adopting "medical home" networks;

"Louisiana citizens deserve access to quality, affordable health care," Boasso said. "As governor, I intend to make sure they finally receive it."

In addition to access, Boasso proposed to save and strengthen our Charity hospital system for the 21st Century.

"Our Charity hospitals are a critical component of our health care system in Louisiana," Boasso said. "For far too long, they've been ignored and have been allowed to suffer. I will strengthen the Charity hospital system and make our Charity hospitals top-notch health care facilities."

Boasso also will work to lower the cost of prescription drugs by instituting a state pharmaceutical assistance program for seniors through a discount program for non-Medicaid patients.

"Our seniors deserve lower prescription drug prices," Boasso said. "As governor I will fight to make medicine more affordable for Louisiana seniors," Boasso said.

Boasso also pledged to push to lower the disparities in our health care system in the state by expanding the Nurse-Family Partnership model that is currently serving over 25 Louisiana parishes. This partnership focuses on prenatal and early childhood in-home assistance by nurses in economically struggling and at-risk families.

"We have to create a culture that puts health care at the center of our citizen's life," Boasso said. "By focusing on pre-natal and preventive care we will not just create a healthier Louisiana but we will create an efficient health care system that catches health issues early and save money in the long run."

Source