Issue Position: Healthcare

Issue Position

I recognize that healthcare costs are increasing too fast in our country and that too many of our fellow citizens remain uninsured. I will consider any sensible idea for making healthcare work better in America. But any change to our healthcare system must address the spiraling costs and insure more Americans without limiting heath options or harming the doctor-patient relationship. For these reasons, I support market-based healthcare reforms that work. What is needed is tort reform. I have long supported a limit on non-economic damages for medical malpractice. Tort reform is long over due and I will fight for a $250,000 cap or three times economic damages for medical malpractice awards to help reduce the need for "defensive" medicine and bring down the cost of malpractice insurance. I also support allowing the sale of inter-state health insurance. Just two carriers provide over 90% of all health insurance in Hawaii, which reduces competition. I support allowing inter-state health insurance sales. Finally, we need to rethink the way we tax health insurance. The current structure of health insurance in the U.S. is an anachronism dating back to WWII. Rather than have corporations as the sole providers of health insurance, we should instead allow for individual tax deduction of health insurance and make the health insurance market a more "normal" individual choice.

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