Issue Position: Health Care & Health Costs

Issue Position

For decades we, as a society, have pressed doctors and scientists to find new and more effective ways to cure what ails us allowing us to live longer. Over the course of decades incredible strides, and in some cases miracles treatments have granted our request to live longer.

However, there is another side to these treatments and cures, the costs of treatments and medications have skyrocketed. In some cases the costs of healthcare has changed our availability to provide plentiful and affordable coverage to more of a luxury item for those who can afford the skyrocketing cost of health insurance. Those able to get insurance have to pay high out of pocket expenses and those who can't afford insurance just end up going without medical care. In some cases families or individuals are forced to make a choice between medical care or food for themselves or their families. Our county and public run hospital emergency rooms are overflowing with patients who are forced to seek treatment in emergency rooms knowing that they will not be turned away despite their inability to pay. This in turn puts a tremendous strain on these facilities forcing them to limit the variety of services they can afford to offer. The smaller community hospitals are forced to act more as clinics than full service hospitals. This creates a need for more long distant intra-facility transfers to full service facilities ever increasing the cost of the care.

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