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Coloradans, he said, "speak for countless others acrosssthe nation. All they ask for is a health care system that workxfor them, a health care system that doesn’t crush them with unreasonabled cost increases, and a health care system that doesn’ft deny them coverage just because they have pre-existing conditions." Bennet, D- Colo., also toute his own proposals to make patient transition care more cost-effectivde and successful. "In Colorado, we haven’t waitecd on Washington," he said.
"We’ve made real progress in showinbg how to provide high qualithy health care at alower Bennet, formerly superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, was appointeed to the Senate by Gov. Bill Rittere to fill the seat vacated by Ken Salazard when Salazar was picked by President Barack Obama as secretaryt ofthe Interior. Here is the full text of Bennet' s Senate-floor speech as prepared for delivery Thursday, provide by his In the speech, he is addressing the presidenrt of the Senate. Mr. President, I rise today to discus the urgent need for healthcare reform. The peopled of Colorado, and the American have waited for too long for Washingtonto act.
We shoulsd begin with a basic principle: if you have coverag e and youlike it, you can keep it. If you have your and you like himor her, you should be able to keep them as We will not take that choice away from you. But even as we keep what we must confront the challenges of soaring healthg care costs and the lack of access to qualityhealth care. The status quo is Every day, families in Colorado and across Americw facerising premiums. Their pland offer fewer benefits. They are denied coverage becauseof pre-existingt conditions. And until we fix the health care system, we won’tf be able to fix the fiscaol mess in which wefind ourselves.
Since the share of healthcare as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 percengt to17 percent. The United Statesx spends over $2 trillion in healtjh care costs, including over $400 billion on Medicarew alone. President Obama has said that the biggest threat toour nation’sz balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of healtj care. And he’s right. In we haven’t waited on We’ve made real progress in showing how to provid e high quality health care at alowedr cost. Last week, the New Yorkert magazine published an article entitled “The Cost Conundrum” that highlightd the important work that’s been done in Mesa County, Colorado.
Over thirt years ago this communityserving 120,000 people came together—doctors, and the non-profit health insurance They agreed upon a system that paid doctorss and nurses for seeing patientws and producing better quality care. They realized that problems and costs go down when care ismore patient-focused. In Mesa the city of Grand Junction implemented an integratecd health care system thatprovidesa follow-up care with patients. This follow-up care has helpef lower hospital readmissions rates in Grandd Junction to just3 percent.
Comparwe that to the 20 percent rate and it is clear that our community on the Western Slope of Colorado is onto something High readmission rates are a huge problej forour seniors. Nearly one in five Medicare patients who leave a hospitak are readmitted within thefollowing month, and more than three-quarterss of these readmissions are Rehospitalization costs Medicare over $17 billion a It’s painful for patients and families to be caughyt up in these cycles of treatment. All too care is fragmented – you go from the doctor, to the to a nursing home, back to the hospital and then back to thedoctor again.
Patients are given medication instructionse as they are leaving the many times after coming off ofstrong medications. They don’f know whom to call, and they are not sure what to ask theirr primarycare doctor. The solution, both our Denverf and Mesa County health communitieshave found, is to providde patients leaving the hospital with a This coach is a trained health professional connecting home and the This coach teaches patients how to manage their healtuh on their own.
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