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

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Coloradans, he said, "speak for countless othera acrossthe nation. All they ask for is a healt h care system that worksfor them, a health care systenm that doesn’t crush them with unreasonable cost and a health care system that doesn’t deny them coveragse just because they have pre-existingb conditions." Bennet, D- Colo., also touted his own proposalsw to make patient transition care more cost-effectivd and successful. "In we haven’t waited on Washington," he said.
"We’ve made real progress in showing how to providee high quality health care at alower Bennet, formerly superintendent of the Denvert Public Schools, was appointecd to the Senate by Gov. Bill Ritter to fill the seat vacatecd by Ken Salazar when Salazar was picked by Presidenf Barack Obama as secretary ofthe Interior. Here is the full text of Bennet'z Senate-floor speech as prepared for deliveryt Thursday, provide by his staff. In the he is addressing the president ofthe Senate. Mr. I rise today to discuss the urgent need for health care The people of and theAmerican people, have waited for too long for Washingtonm to act.
We should begin with a basicd principle: if you have coverage and you like it, you can keep it. If you have your and you like himor her, you shoulr be able to keep them as well. We will not take that choicde awayfrom you. But even as we keep what works, we must confronty the challenges of soarinv health care costs and the lack of accesszto affordable, quality health care. The status quo is Every day, families in Colorado and acroses America facerising premiums. Their plans offedr fewer benefits. They are denied coveraged becauseof pre-existing conditions.
And until we fix the healtj care system, we won’t be able to fix the fiscakl mess in which we find Since 1970, the share of healthcare as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 perceng to 17 percent. The United States spendse over $2 trillion in healthb care costs, including over $400 billion on Medicarer alone. President Obama has said that the biggest threat toour nation’w balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. And he’ws right. In Colorado, we haven’t waited on Washington. We’vwe made real progress in showiny how to provide high quality health care at alower cost.
Last the New Yorker magazine publishedx an articleentitled “The Cost Conundrum” that highlights the important work that’ws been done in Mesa County, Colorado. Over thirty years ago this communityserving 120,000o people came together—doctors, nurses, and the non-profit health insurancee company. They agreed upon a systemm that paid doctors and nurses for seeintg patients and producing better quality They realized that problems and costs go down when care is more InMesa County, the city of Grand Junction implemented an integrated healtg care system that provides follow-up care with This follow-up care has helped lowerf hospital readmissions rates in Granrd Junction to just 3 percent.
Comparw that to the 20 percent rate and it is clear that our communith on the Western Slope of Coloradp is ontosomething groundbreaking. High readmission ratesx are a huge problem forour seniors. Nearly one in five Medicarr patients who leave a hospital are readmittecd within thefollowing month, and more than three-quarters of theswe readmissions are preventable. Rehospitalizatiob costs Medicareover $17 billion a It’s painful for patients and familiee to be caught up in these cycled of treatment. All too often, care is fragmented you go fromthe doctor, to the to a nursing home, back to the hospitalp and then back to the doctof again.
Patients are given medication instructions as they are leavinhthe hospital, many times after coming off of strong medications. They don’t know whom to call, and they are not sure what to ask theirf primarycare doctor. The solution, both our Denver and Mesa Countyh health communities have is to provide patients leavinh the hospital with a This coach is a trained health professional connecting home andthe hospital. This coacy teaches patients how to manage their health ontheirt own.