Lowering Health Care Costs
INCREASE ACCESS TO PREVENTIVE CARE
We need a health care system that incentivizes wellness, not illness. Jeanne Shaheen believes we should retool our current health care system to place greater emphasis on preventive care and chronic disease management. Over two-thirds of all health care costs today are spent on chronic care, and that drives up health insurance premiums for all of us. We currently have a sick care system and what we really need is a health care system.
INVEST IN NEW HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGY
Currently, there is more information technology in most grocery stores than in most doctors' offices. Digitizing health information reduces duplication, avoids errors, allows providers to use data to improve their patients' outcomes and reduce costs and improves quality reporting and research into the effectiveness of different treatments. Transferring medical records to an electronic format lowers costs and increases efficiency.
ESTABLISH A HEALTH CARE TAX CREDIT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Jeanne Shaheen is proposing a tax credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses that pay for at least 60 percent of their employees' health care premiums and are located in states like New Hampshire where insurance companies are barred from discriminating against businesses that have sick workers.
REDUCE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS
Jeanne Shaheen believes we should allow the reimportation of safe, cheap prescription drugs from Canada and will push to end patent abuses that prevent cheaper generic drugs from coming to market. Shaheen will also fight to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices to ease the burden on seniors.
REDUCE MEDICATION ERRORS
Preventable medication errors cost about $1 billion a year and most medication errors are systems related, not the result of individual negligence or misconduct. System improvements can reduce error rates, improve quality and cut costs. Jeanne Shaheen believes we should invest in programs like those implemented at the VA, which have reduced costly and dangerous medication errors by 70 percent.
We need a health care system that incentivizes wellness, not illness. Jeanne Shaheen believes we should retool our current health care system to place greater emphasis on preventive care and chronic disease management. Over two-thirds of all health care costs today are spent on chronic care, and that drives up health insurance premiums for all of us. We currently have a sick care system and what we really need is a health care system.
INVEST IN NEW HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGY
Currently, there is more information technology in most grocery stores than in most doctors' offices. Digitizing health information reduces duplication, avoids errors, allows providers to use data to improve their patients' outcomes and reduce costs and improves quality reporting and research into the effectiveness of different treatments. Transferring medical records to an electronic format lowers costs and increases efficiency.
ESTABLISH A HEALTH CARE TAX CREDIT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Jeanne Shaheen is proposing a tax credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses that pay for at least 60 percent of their employees' health care premiums and are located in states like New Hampshire where insurance companies are barred from discriminating against businesses that have sick workers.
REDUCE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS
Jeanne Shaheen believes we should allow the reimportation of safe, cheap prescription drugs from Canada and will push to end patent abuses that prevent cheaper generic drugs from coming to market. Shaheen will also fight to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices to ease the burden on seniors.
REDUCE MEDICATION ERRORS
Preventable medication errors cost about $1 billion a year and most medication errors are systems related, not the result of individual negligence or misconduct. System improvements can reduce error rates, improve quality and cut costs. Jeanne Shaheen believes we should invest in programs like those implemented at the VA, which have reduced costly and dangerous medication errors by 70 percent.
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