Where I Stand

HOW DO WE EASE THE PAIN OF HEALTH CARE COSTS?

In a nation as blessed as this one, quality health care ought to be accessible and affordable for all of us, but you know as well as I do that it isn't. The Republican approach of waiting on the private sector and the open market to bring costs down is a crashing failure.

Consider the numbers:

Since President Bush took office in 2001, the cost of health care for American families has skyrocketed 78 percent.

Here in Tennessee, it grew at a rate (adjusted for inflation) of about 45 percent.

Each year, health care costs take a $10,361 bite out of the family checkbook and $3,822 for the individual bill-payer in Tennessee.

In 2006, 47 million Americans did not have health care insurance, and that included 14% percent of all Tennesseans.

Saddest of all, more than 150,000 youngsters in Tennessee don't have any health coverage.

We must encourage the states to continue to develop innovative ways to make health care available. I pledge to you that I will work within the 111th Congress to we come up with real answers so that Tennesseans will not have to put their financial security at risk just to get the necessary health coverage. I believe we can create a system that insures all and does it without ballooning the federal bureaucracy.

POINTS FOR TENNESSEANS TO THINK ABOUT

  • Health care is taking more than $10,000 a year out of the family checkbook and more than $3,000 for individuals in Tennessee.
  • Health care costs for Tennessee families have grown by 45 percent and by a staggering 78 percent for American families overall since President Bush took office.
  • Sadly, more than 150,000 children in our state do not have health coverage.
  • States must continue to develop innovate ways to open up health care to more people.
  • I will work to see that Tennesseans don't have to sacrifice their health in order to protect their financial well-being. And I won't leave the job up to the private-sector health industry whose primary interest is the bottom line.
  • I will be a champion of needy Tennessee children, who cannot learn in school and break the bonds of poverty without proper health care.

I Want to Hear from You!