Increasing Access to Quality Health Care
Too many Central Washington residents find it difficult to afford the health care they need for themselves and for their families.
I support proposals to increase health care choices, make health costs tax deductible, expand health savings accounts and make it easier for small businesses to afford to offer health benefits to their employees. We must reduce regulations so that doctors and nurses can focus more on patients, not paperwork - and control unnecessary lawsuits that are driving up the cost of health care for everyone.
Promoting Health Care in Rural America
The doctors, nurses, hospitals, and health centers that provide health care in Central Washington are working hard and doing a great job for our communities. Many of the challenges they face are different from challenges faced by health care providers in Seattle or New York City.
The Rural Health Care Coalition is a bipartisan group of lawmakers from rural areas who work together to do what's best for the communities they represent.
During a visit to Yakima Neighborhood Health Services Hastings is honored for his work on behalf of Community Health CentersAs a member of this group, Congressman Hastings worked to include $25 billion in the Medicare law to correct basic inequities in Medicare's payment system for doctors and rural hospitals. By increasing payments to more accurately reflect the cost of providing care, this law helps provide doctors and rural hospitals with the resources they need to continue providing seniors access to hometown health care.
Hastings supports incentive programs that help draw doctors and nurses to rural, underserved areas and he is an ardent supporter of the community health centers that play a major role in our local health care system by serving as a safety net for all patients regardless of ability to pay.
Hastings is regularly honored as a "Superhero" by the National Association of Community Health Centers for his consistent support of community health centers.
Helping Individuals and Families Save for Health Care Needs
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) provide Americans with another option to help plan for current and future health care needs.
These tax-free savings accounts can be used to pay for health care expenses not covered by insurance. An individual can make tax-free contributions to a Health Savings Account and withdraw from it as they see fit for qualified health care expenses like physicals, health screenings, prescription drugs, dental and eye care, health insurance while in between jobs, long-term care, and retiree health insurance.
Unused money in Health Savings Accounts can be rolled over from year to year. Health Savings Accounts are portable - if you change jobs your account goes with you. Interest earned on Health Savings Accounts is tax-free, and both employers and employees can make contributions.
Health Savings Accounts aren't the complete solution to challenges facing our health care system, but they are a way to provide Americans with more health care choices and more control over individual health care spending decisions.
To learn more about Health Savings Accounts, including eligibility requirements and how to establish an account, please visit the U.S. Treasury Department's website.
Making Prescription Drugs More Affordable for All Americans
Congressman Hastings believes it is simply wrong that prescription drugs cost up to 300 percent more in American than in Canada and other industrialized countries. Americans deserve to pay a fair market price for the prescription drugs they need - not be forced to pay artificially high prices that subsidize lower drug costs in other countries. That's why Hastings supports plans that would enable individuals, pharmacists, and wholesalers to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized nations. This practice is commonly known as prescription drug reimportation. Like all prescription drugs sold in the United States, these imported drugs would be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), be made in FDA approved facilities and require a prescription from a doctor.
Modernizing Medicare
Medicare was created in 1965 and has helped America's seniors live healthier and longer lives. However, Medicare has not kept pace with advancements in health care and medicines.
In 2003 Congress enacted aMedicare law that, for the first time ever, provides seniors with help paying for the prescription drugs they need. The law expands health care options for seniors who want more choices - while preserving the traditional Medicare for seniors who prefer that. The voluntary prescription drug benefit includes affordable premiums, low deductibles, and extra help for low income seniors.
In addition to creating the first-ever Medicare prescription drug benefit, important preventative care benefits have also been added that every senior should be aware of.
To find out more about Medicare benefits please visit medicare.gov or call toll-free 1-800-MEDICARE.
Reducing Lawsuit Abuse
Doctors, hospitals, and emergency rooms that serve our communities are being hurt by ever increasing insurance rates - so much that the American Medical Association has declared Washington a "medical malpractice crisis state." Congressman Hastings supports common sense reforms to reduce frivolous lawsuits that are driving up the cost of health care for everyone and causing doctors in Washington state to limit services.
The plan Hastings supports would reduce doctor's insurance premiums by placing a responsible cap on non-economic damages. At the same time it would protect patients' full and complete compensation for economic damages - including the loss of past and future wages, lifetime rehabilitation, and medical and drug costs. It would also increase the share of lawsuit awards that go to injured patients, while decreasing the amount that could be claimed by lawyers.
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Providing Federal Support for Local Solutions
In special circumstances the federal government can provide support for local efforts to improve health care access. Each year, Congressman Hastings works with many doctors, hospitals, and health centers to ensure that thier needs are met. Here are just a few examples of ways the federal government has been able to support local solutions in Central Washington:
- Congressman Hastings supported a federal grant for nearly $1 million for the Benton-Franklin Health Alliance to enhance health care services for the uninsured. Partners in the project include Kadlec Medical Center, Lourdes Medical Center, Kennewick General Hospital, and La Clinica.
- Congressman Hastings secured $950,000 for essential improvements at Coulee Community Hospital. The hospital's funding sources for renovations are limited because surrounding federal and tribal lands limit the tax base that supports the hospital.
- Congressman Hastings personally worked with Medicare officials and Lourdes to end the agency's disputed effort to force Lourdes to return over $2.2 million in federal payments.
- Congressman Hastings secured $750,000 to help establish a digital ray system at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. This is a cost effective way to bring the latest x-ray technology to patients throughout North Central Washington.
- Congressman Hastings secured $143,449 to help the Quincy Valley Medical Center make critical infrastructure upgrades.
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