Tom Harkin is a leader in the fight for more affordable, accessible
and secure health care. Improved health care for all Americans will
be a top priority of his presidency.
After 11 years of failed Bush/Quayle/Reagan policies, health care in
America is in crisis. Health costs have more than doubled for American
families and businesses. Millions of Americans have lost their health
insurance, bringing the number of uninsured to nearly 37 million. More
and more middle-class Americans are being denied coverage simply
because of their occupation or "pre-existing" health conditions.
If George Bush's policies are allowed to continue, even his own
experts project that health costs for the average American will more
than double - to nearly $6,000 per year - by the end of the 1990s.
Yet, he is offering nothing to American families but more of the same
-- higher and higher costs and less and less coverage. Unlike
George Bush, Tom Harkin understands the health care problems Americans
are facing and believes our health care system needs an overhaul that
will reduce costs and improve coverage.
Tom Harkin also believes that a health policy has to address much more
than just paying the bills after someone gets sick or becomes
disabled. It must also focus on preventing illness and disability in
the flrst place through expanded medical research and improved
prevertion programs. Tom Harkin knows that a health care system that
keeps people healthy will reduce health costs, improve our
productivity as a nation and improve the quality of life for
Americans.
TOM HARKIN'S 8 POINT PLAN FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
1. Guarantee all Americans affordable quality health care, without
fine-print exceptions or pre-existing condition limitations;
2. Protect all American families against the high costs of long-term
care and personal assistance services, with an emphasis on heiping
people stay in their own homes and communities and providing heip to
family caregivers;
3. Cut unnecessary health costs and improve quality by having as its
centerpiece a complete program to prevent illness and disability from
striking in the first place;
4. Cut bureaucratic waste, red tape, padded prices and use the savings
to expand coverage and lower costs for American families;
5. Guarantee that Americans can choose their own doctor, hospital or
other health care provider, not one dictated to them by the government
or by an insurance company;
6. Launch a research war to find cures for cancer, Alzheimer's
disease, AIDS, arthritis, mental illness, and other conditions,
including orphan diseases, that cause millions of Americans pain and
suffering and add billions to health care costs.
7. Reduce the number of illnesses and accidents suffered by Americans
by cracking down on unsafe working conditions and toxins that pollute
our air and water;
8. Bring more doctors and nurses to rural and other underserved areas
through an expande National Health Service Corps and other incentives.
To implement this plan, Tom Harkin will call together leaders from
consumer organizations, Congress, state and local government, labor,
business, health care professionals and other key groups. They will
meet with him presiding at the head of the table and will not leave
until a final plan is hammered out. He will then send the plan to
congress and put the full weight of the White House behind it to get
it through, and he'll sign it into law by the end of his first year in
office.
TOM HARKIN'S PROVEN LEADERSHIP IN HEALTH CARE
Tom Harkin has proven that by spending our money more wisely, we can
improve quality and lower health care costs. Among his recent
accomplishments, many of which came through his chairmanship of a key
Senate panel, are:
* Provided Americans better access to lower cost preventive health
care, including pre-natal care, immunizations, cancer screenings, and
substance abuse prevention programs.
* Ordered a 20 percent reduction in unnecessary Medicare paperwork and
red tape.
* Cut over 5200 million in wasteful administrative cost increases in
President Bush's 1991 Health budget and used that money instead to
improve preventive health services.
* At no additional cost to the government, added 2.3 million more
pregnant women, infants and children to those who have received
nutritious meals by working to require competitive bidding by WIC
contractors.
* Expanded investment in cost-saving biomedical research by $1.8
billion in three years, including a doubling of funding to find a cure
for Alzheimer's disease. Authored the legislation that established the
National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders, as well as
the National Institute for Nursing Research Act.
* Authored a resolution demanding that Congress take action to protect
American families against the costs of nursing home care and long-term
care at home.
* Fought to end discrimination against women in health care research
and coverage. Sponsored legislation which would ensure that all
Americans aged 50 and over have coverage for life saving and cost
saving breast cancer screening.
* Fought to revive the National Health Service Corps, which provides
rural and medically underserved areas with doctors, nurses and other
health care providers. Led efforts to prevent the closure of rural
hospitals and end the second class status of rural health care.
By taking the best elements of America's program and combining them
with the best from other nations, Tom Harkin will create an American
plan of quality accessible health care for all Americans.
