Jeanne Shaheen: “Pay More” to Keep Your Doctor or Hospital
Katherine Rosario | February 3, 2014
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)9%9% wouldn’t make clear whether she would vote for Obamacare again during a radio interview in New Hampshire Friday. She said she was concerned about limited networks in New Hampshire under Obamacare and stated:
I think what I’m hoping to do… looking at legislation is to is see if we can get a look through the federal department of Health and Human Services about the adequacy of the networks that exist so that at least for people who are willing to pay more, that they have that option of going to their doctor and hospital no matter what their insurer does.
Nonetheless, she expressed support of Obamacare and her willingness to make it better, which is impossible for this fundamentally flawed law:
The fact is, I believe everybody deserves quality affordable health care. That’s I’ve worked for since I first got elected to the state senate in New Hampshire, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do… I think we’ve got to look at what’s working in the Affordable Care Act. I don’t think any body wants to go back to a system where if you have had a disease you were denied insurance coverage, where if you got a major illness you were denied coverage after a certain amount of money had been spend, where you had limits on what the insurance company would cover, where young people couldn’t get health insurance because they couldn’t afford it.
Her rhetoric sounds nice, but Obamacare sadly will not accomplish the goals she articulated. Simply telling her constituents and the rest of America to “pay more” to keep their doctor isn’t good enough.
Instead, America needs a patient-centered, market-based health care system.
Such a system would empower the states to use a “variety of approaches to provide coverage to individuals who are unable to purchase insurance” due to a pre-existing conditions.
states could establish reinsurance or risk transfer mechanisms under which insurance companies would reimburse each other for the cost of treating individuals with high medical expenses without added funding from state or federal taxpayers.
We didn’t need the massive changes to America’s health care system that came with Obamacare. The law isn’t helping increase access to quality, affordable health care. The sooner Sen. Shaheen and her fellow Obamacare supporters realize that, the sooner America can move on to real reform.
http://heritageaction.com/2014/02/jeanne-shaheen-pay-keep-doctor-hospital/
