Issue Position: Protecting Your Health

Issue Position

Protecting your health is one of the most important priorities of government. Here's our challenge: in the last ten years, costs have basically doubled. Some Americans have seen their life expectancy decline. While opinions vary on different health care policies, we have to do better. We should unite around two ideas: better health at a better price.

In America, there is a mixed healthcare system with both private insurance and government programs. I believe in a robust employer based health insurance, and I believe that government programs should help persons in vulnerable circumstances. The good news is that America is still a leader in health care innovation. Through technology, better management, and personalized care we can predictably reduce costs by twenty percent--with better outcomes.

It's about getting things done. When Republicans and Democrats failed to find a rational way forward with prescription drug prices, I wrote the insulin bill--a new way to help thirty million diabetic Americans. The idea is simple: manufacturers can sell insulin directly to the patient. This approach can be scaled across our system to eliminate bureaucracy, price inflation, and excess profiteering from sickness.

To cut prescription drug prices further, I helped the Food and Drug Administration accelerate generic drug approval, and it's working. We also have significantly increased medical research across the spectrum from Alzheimer' to addressing the worst of the opioid crisis. Another bill close to my heart is called "Making it Right," a new approach to helping those suffering from ALS.

When the Affordable Care Act hurt family farms, I helped initiate a new healthcare plan for Nebraska farmers through a qualified agriculture association to provide a solid healthcare policy that significantly lowered costs. To show you how upside down things are, the courts shut it down.

Again, we have to do better. Better health at a better price. That's the goal, and it can be done--through caring and responsive leadership.

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