Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

Health Care

Diane supports and has worked hard to make affordable health care available to more Minnesotans.

"Affordable, quality health coverage should be available to all. Too many children suffer from hearing losses from untreated ear infections and tragically, too many uninsured adults die from preventable or treatable diseases because they did not get regular health care and have their conditions diagnosed at an early, treatable point.

Affordable health insurance should be available to all and cost containing efforts should be about promoting health, not underinsuring care or discouraging the use of preventative care and life saving diagnostic tests.

Ever increasing health care costs are: causing more individuals and families to be uninsured, employers to drop coverage, and wages to stagnate (while contributions to health premiums skyrocket), and creating a drag on the ability of our businesses to compete in the global market. Our small businesses can't get affordable quotes to cover their employees. Worst of all, while we spend the most of any country on health care, we do not have the best health outcomes as measured by such things as survival rates.

Dramatically rising state health care costs and the aging of our population will prevent the state from having needed funds for other key priorities such as education unless we act to bring those costs under control."

Diane Loeffler

Diane will work for:

*Universal access to affordable health care whether unemployed, self-employed or involved in a small business.

*Health care cost containment through changes that promote health, prevention and universal coverage, all of which have been demonstrated to reduce overall health costs.

*Assuring that health insurance requirements encourage the use of prevention visits and diagnostic tests such as cholesterol screenings, Mammograms, etc.

*Diane will work against the movement towards increased use of catastrophic plans that do not support regular ongoing preventative care.

*Access to affordable prescription drugs for all in a manner that doesn't put out of business the local drug stores on which we all depend for immediately needed prescriptions.

*Helping seniors make the right choices in accessing the new federal Medicare Drug benefit.

*Continuing support for home care.

*An improved system of options when home care isn't enough.
Reducing the health dollars that go to administration and overhead instead of care. This would include discouraging the advertising of prescription drugs and promoting the use of electronic medical records and more cost effective approaches to billing.

*Address the growing workforce shortages in health care, including the development of effective career ladders and affordable and accessible training for mid-career health workers.

*Public health efforts to reduce smoking, obesity, drug use and teen pregnancy and to make sure families get of to a health start must continue to be a key public strategy.

Health insurance and quality care should be viewed as a basic for all, like food and housing, not an "extra" for those with good jobs or high incomes. Diane has over 10 years of experience in effectively addressing numerous issues related to health care and access to health coverage. Diane joined many different groups in fighting the health coverage and care cuts, and the dramatic increases in health premiums that were pushed through by the Republicans in the last budget. Dramatically rising health care costs and the aging of our population will prevent the state for having needed funds for other key priorities such as education unless we act to bring those costs under control. However, health care cost containment should be pursued through changes that promote health and prevention and universal access to affordable care, all of which have been demonstrated to reduce overall health costs. Efforts to reduce costs through reduced eligibility or higher premiums, deductibles and copayments do not promote health and are simply cost shifting from one payor to another. Health insurance should be about sharing, not avoiding risk and promoting health, not underinsuring care.

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