Sen. Baucus calls for health care reform, introduces legislation that could foster reform

We all have heard the horror stories of people who suffered or died because they had no health insurance. Currently, more than 46 million Americans do not have coverage. The latest unfortunate media reports on the uninsured have involved overweight or underweight infants who have been refused coverage because of their weight, even though they are perfectly healthy in every other way. This is a national disgrace that needs to change. In an online article published Oct. 21 on the web site of The New England Journal of Medicine, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee,said doing nothing about health care policy is not an option. His committee introduced legislation on October 13, known as the America’s Healthy Future Act. An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said the bill would fulfill the promise to slow the growth of health care costs and to provide quality and affordable coverage. "Preserving the status quo would mean that Medicare would go broke in 2017," he said. In addition, he notes, more Americans would lose their insurance coverage and our country would have to sacrifice other priorities to spend more and more of our federal budget on health care. With his committee's legislation, there would be an increase in the percentage of Americans who have insurance to 94%, he said, adding that the legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $81 billion over the next 10 years. It might not be a perfect solution and the legislation might not attain its highest objectives, but it would be a starting point that could save more lives and begin to fix the problems that plague the health care system of the richest nation in the world. If we have money for guns and war and space missions, we should have money for healthcare and medicines for all who need it.