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John Cornyn: A record of health care reform

Dallas Morning News
August 20, 2008

All of us, Republican and Democrat, young and old, agree that too many Texans don't have health insurance. I believe that every Texan should have access to quality, affordable health care, preferably by reducing the cost of health insurance, promoting prevention, and empowering Texans to make choices in the best interests of their families.In the Senate, I have supported numerous reforms that would accomplish these goals. I co-sponsored legislation that would allow small businesses to join together to provide lower-cost health insurance plans for their employees and co-authored the bipartisan Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which will help prevent disease, lead to healthier young people and reduce health care costs. I also have supported legislation to increase the number of nurses, make health savings accounts more flexible, improve PE in schools, enhance fitness in the workforce, and implement medical liability reform.

Like other issues, hyper-partisanship has trumped common sense. The solution should be rooted in preserving and strengthening the important patient-doctor relationship. The best way to do this is making health insurance more affordable, not increasing the government's role. Increasing government control in health care increases the likelihood that our health care system will be more bureaucratic, less responsive to individual needs, and inevitably result in rationing.

On the other hand, government should provide a safety net for the most vulnerable, which is why I have supported the dramatic growth of Federally Qualified Community Health Centers in Texas, more than 50 percent since I arrived in the Senate.

I've been faulted because I "only" supported a 40 percent increase in SCHIP funding for working poor children's health insurance. The problem in Texas is the intolerable fact that 800,000 Texas children eligible for SCHIP and Medicaid have not been enrolled. Shouldn't we register those children before increasing spending by $25 billion?

Additionally, the bill was bad for Texas taxpayers, who would have footed the bill for New York and other states to pay for government largesse that was never intended by Congress when the program was created.

Government should provide incentives to both patient and provider. We should have association health plans, allowing small businesses to pool their buying power giving them the access to insurance rates that CenterPoint Energy and Wal-Mart enjoy. We also need to make the industry more efficient by moving to electronic health records. Google and Microsoft already have pilot projects that put health records online. There also needs to be greater transparency in pricing and outcomes from hospitals, insurance companies and doctors alike.

My opponent, Rick Noriega, tends to get wrapped up in negative hyperbole but beneath posturing there are honest differences. Texas was right in passing Tort Reform in 2003. This act has caused doctors to move to Texas in droves, including OB-GYNs. Yet, Mr. Noriega stood with the trial attorneys and voted no in the Legislature.

Health care is a tough issue that takes people working together for the long-term interest of patients and providers. This spring, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and I took political heat because we insisted on a permanent fix to the Medicare reimbursement system for doctors. Currently, physicians have to plead with Congress every few months for temporary relief, under threat of a major reduction in funding. Facing Democratic threats to cut their payments, the Texas Medical Association undermined our efforts to force a long-term solution. I believe our approach was the responsible one, and I will continue advocating for it

Our choices are clear. We can turn health care, in steps, over to government control and learn to live with mediocrity, or we can work in a bipartisan fashion to extend benefits of individually owned health insurance to those uninsured. I believe the latter approach will provide greater access and better quality health care.

Republican John Cornyn represents Texas in the U.S. Senate. He may be reached through jcornyn@johncornyn.com.