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

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Coloradans, he said, "speak for countlesds others acrossthe nation. All they ask for is a healtb care system that works for a health care systemthat doesn’t crusy them with unreasonable cost and a health care systekm that doesn’t deny them coverage just because they have pre-existingf conditions." Bennet, D- Colo., also touted his own proposalx to make patient transition care more cost-effectivr and successful. "In Colorado, we haven’rt waited on Washington," he said. "We’ve made real progress in showinbg how to provide high quality health care at alowerf cost.
" Bennet, formerly superintendent of the Denver Public was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Bill Rittef to fill the seat vacate d by Ken Salazar when Salazafr was picked by Presidenty Barack Obama as secretarg ofthe Interior. Here is the full text of Bennet'w Senate-floor speech as prepared for delivery Thursday, provide by his In the speech, he is addressinvg the president ofthe Senate. Mr. President, I rise todagy to discuss the urgent need for healthgcare reform. The people of and the American people, have waited for too long for Washingto nto act. We should begin with a basif principle: if you have coverage and you like 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 healtbh care costs and the lack of accessto affordable, quality healtb care. The status quo is unacceptable. Every day, familiews in Colorado and across America facerising premiums. Theirf plans offer fewer benefits. They are denied coverage becauseof pre-existing conditions. And until we fix the healtjh care system, we won’t be able to fix the fisca l mess in which we find Since 1970, the share of healthcare as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 percentf to 17 percent.
The United States spende over $2 trillion in health care costs, includingf over $400 billion on Medicare alone. Presidenyt Obama has said that the biggest threaty toour nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketinf cost of health care. And he’as right. In Colorado, we haven’t waited on Washington. We’v made real progress in showing how to provide high qualitgy health care at alower cost. Last week, the New Yorker magaziner published an articleentitled “Thes Cost Conundrum” that highlights the important work that’s been done in Mesa Colorado.
Over thirty years ago this communityserving 120,00 people came together—doctors, nurses, and the non-profirt health insurance company. They agreed upon a systemk that paid doctors and nurses for seeing patients and producingb betterquality care. They realized that problems and costxs go down when care ismore patient-focused. In Mesa County, the city of Grands Junction implemented an integrated health care systemj thatprovides follow-up care with This follow-up care has helped lower hospitalo readmissions rates in Grand Junction to just 3 Compare that to the 20 percent rate and it is clear that our community on the Westernb Slope of Colorado is onto something groundbreaking.
High readmissionb rates are a huge problem forour seniors. Nearly one in five Medicarwe patients who leave a hospitaol are readmitted within thefollowinhg month, and more than three-quarters of thesr readmissions are preventable. Rehospitalizationm costs Medicareover $17 billion a year. It’s painful for patiente and families to be caught up in these cycleasof treatment. All too care is fragmented – you go from the doctor, to the to a nursing home, back to the hospitao and then back to thedoctot again. Patients are given medication instructions as they are leavintgthe hospital, many times after cominh off of strong medications.
They don’t know whom to and they are not sure what to ask their primarycare doctor. The solution, both our Denver and Mesa Counth health communitieshave found, is to provide patients leaving the hospital with a “coach.” This coacg is a trained health professional connecting home and the This coach teaches patients how to managed their health on their own.