Bennet cites Colorado examples in Senate plea for health-care reform - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Coloradans, he said, "speako for countless others acrossthe nation. All they ask for is a healty care system that workwfor them, a health care system that doesn’t crushh them with unreasonable cost increases, and a healtj care system that doesn’t deny them coveragee just because they have pre-existing conditions." D- Colo., also touted his own proposals to make patient transition care more cost-effective and "In Colorado, we haven’t waited on Washington," he "We’ve made real progress in showin how to provide high quality healtu care at a lower cost.
" Bennet, formerlg superintendent of the Denver Publid Schools, was appointed to the Senatew by Gov. Bill Ritter to fill the seat vacatesd by Ken Salazar when Salazar was picked by President Barackj Obama as secretary of the Here is the full textof Bennet's Senate-floor speech as prepared for delivery Thursday, providde by his staff. In the speech, he is addressing the presiden ofthe Senate. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the urgent need for healtgcare reform. The people of Colorado, and the Americanm people, have waited for too long for Washingtonto act. We should begin with a basic principle: if you have coverager and youlike it, you can keep it.
If you have your and you like himor her, you shouls be able to keep them as well. We will not take that choicse awayfrom you. But even as we keep what we must confront the challenges of soaring health care costsd and the lack of accesswto affordable, quality health The status quo is unacceptable. Every day, families in Colorado and across America face rising Their plans offer fewer They are denied coverage becauseof pre-existing And until we fix the healtj care system, we won’t be able to fix the fiscal mess in which we find ourselves. Since 1970, the share of healthcare as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 percentf to17 percent.
The Unitexd States spends over $2 trillion in health care includingover $400 billion on Medicare alone. Presidenft Obama has said that the biggest threat toour nation’a balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health And he’s right. In Colorado, we haven’t waited on We’ve made real progress in showing how to provid high quality health care at alowef cost. Last week, the New Yorker magazine published an articleentitled “The Cost Conundrum” that highlightw the important work that’s been done in Mesa Colorado. Over thirty yeara ago this communityserving 120,000 people came nurses, and the non-profi health insurance company.
They agreed upon a system that paid doctors and nurses for seeing patientas and producing betterquality care. They realizeed that problems and costs go down when care is more InMesa County, the city of Grandc Junction implemented an integrated health care systejm that provides follow-up care with patients. This follow-uop care has helped lower hospitalk readmissions rates in Grand Junction to just 3 Compare that to the 20 percentrate nationwide, and it is clear that our community on the Western Slope of Coloradko is onto something High readmission rates are a huge problem for our Nearly one in five Medicare patients who leave a hospital are readmitted withi the following month, and more than three-quartersw of these readmissions are preventable.
Rehospitalizationm costs Medicareover $17 billion a It’s painful for patients and familiew to be caught up in these cycles of treatment. All too care is fragmented – you go from the to the hospital, to a nursingt home, back to the hospitapl and then back to the doctor Patients are given medication instructions as they are leavinvthe hospital, many times afterr coming off of strong medications. They don’t know whom to call, and they are not sure what to ask thei primarycare doctor. The solution, both our Denver and Mesa Counth health communitieshave found, is to provids patients leaving the hospital with a “coach.
” This coachj is a trained health professional connecting home and the This coach teaches patients how to manags their health on their own.