Purchasing Across State Lines
In order to reduce health care costs we must increase competition. Any viable health care reform legislation must afford consumers the ability to purchase insurance across state lines, which will drastically expand competition in the marketplace and drive costs down. There are approximately 1,300 health care providers in the United States, but due to the prohibition on purchasing insurance across state lines, one or two providers often consume 70-80% of the market share in some states. Allowing all 1,300 providers to compete for business nationwide would blow open competition and would make health care far more affordable for all Americans.
Tort Reform
America's health care system is plagued by a constant stream of frivolous lawsuits that result in an unnecessary inflation of health care costs. Doctors are being force to combat impending lawsuits in two ways, both of which drive up costs on the system, costs that are then passed on to patients.
o Malpractice Insurance Premiums: Tort reform would help curb the number of junk lawsuits filed against doctors, which would in turn lower the cost of malpractice premiums and reduce overhead costs on hospitals.
o Defensive Medicine: As a result of frivolous lawsuits, many doctors are forced to engage in defensive medicine, a practice that leads doctors to order needless tests or procedures to protect themselves against future lawsuits. A 2008 survey found that more than 80% of doctors in some states practice defensive medicine and that 25% of all imaging tests were ordered for defensive purposes. Tort reform would help eliminate the need for the practice of defensive medicine and would reduce health care costs by as much as $200 billion a year.
The Sutton Record
- Not only did Betty Sutton vote for the job crushing 2010 health care bill, she went one step further and fought for a compelte government takeover of health care known as the “public option”.
- Betty Sutton’s voted for the Obama-Pelosi health care law ended Medicare as we know it, gutting $500 billion from Medicare and accellerating the program’s freefall into bankruptcy. Following passing of the health care law, the 2011 Medicare Trustee’s Report stated that Medicare is now on a path towards insolvency in just 9 years.
- After voting to gut $500 billion from Medicare, Betty Sutton then opposed the budget plan put forth to protect and preserve Medicare—instead opting to do nothing and simply let Medicare disappear into bankruptcy.