Health care reform is one of the next major issues Congress will attempt to tackle. President Obama is budgeting over 600-billion dollars over the next ten years to move the country toward a single payer type of health care coverage.
Nebraska Third District Congressman Adrian Smith says there are some positives in the overall proposals. “Utilizing technology needs to be expanded,” Smith says. “I get a little bit nervous when we think though that computers are going to try to make decisions for health care for individuals and for physicians. First thing we need to do with health care is make sure we maintain what we know works.”
Smith says he is concerned about more government intrusion in health care. “The more the government’s gotten involved over the last several years, the higher priced medicine has become,” he says. “We need to learn from that, not ignore those facts and bring in more government involvement.” He fears the quality of health care will suffer.
He says different parts of the country have different priorities when it comes to health care. “Rural America, it’s mere access to health care. Urban America, it’s about more competition to bring the price down.” He calls the job ahead to reform the industry “daunting.”
Thanks to Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton
