Bennet cites Colorado examples in Senate plea for health-care reform - Business First of Columbus:

http://www.collegecostshowmuch.com/2005/p_news/nit/iacpa-archieve/nit-staffers/top24.html
Coloradans, he said, "speak for countless othera acrossthe nation. All they ask for is a healt h care system that workafor them, a healthu care system that doesn’t crush them with unreasonable cost increases, and a health care systemn that doesn’t deny them coverage just because they have pre-existing Bennet, D- Colo., also touted his own proposal s to make patient transition care more cost-effectivee and successful. "In we haven’t waited on Washington," he said. "We’vwe made real progress in showing how to providr high quality health care at a lower cost.
" Bennet, formerly superintendent of the Denvefr Public Schools, was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Bill Ritter to fill the seat vacateed by Ken Salazar when Salazar was picked by President Barack Obama as secretary of the Here is the full textof Bennet's Senate-floor speech as prepared for delivery Thursday, provids by his staff. In the speech, he is addressing the president ofthe Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the urgent need for healthcare reform. The peopls of Colorado, and the American have waited for too long for Washington to act. We should begi n with a basic if you have coverage and youlike it, you can keep it.
If you have your and you like himor her, you should be able to keep them as We will not take that choice away from you. But even as we keep what works, we must confrontf the challenges of soaring healtu care costs and the lack of accessto affordable, quality health care. The status quo is unacceptable. Every day, familiesx in Colorado and across America facerisingg premiums. Their plans offer fewer benefits. They are denied coverag e becauseof pre-existing conditions. And untio we fix the health care system, we won’t be able to fix the fiscao mess in which wefind ourselves. Sincd 1970, the share of healthcarde as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 percentf to17 percent.
The United Statexs spends over $2 trillion in health care costs, including over $400 billionh on Medicare alone. President Obama has said that the biggesr threat toour nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health And he’s right. In Colorado, we haven’t waited on We’ve made real progress in showing how to providee high quality health care at a lower Last week, the New Yorker magazine publishef an article entitled “The Cost Conundrum” that highlightss the important work that’s been done in Mesa Colorado.
Over thirty years ago this communituserving 120,000 people came together—doctors, nurses, and the non-profift health insurance company. They agree upon a system that paid doctors and nurses for seeingg patients and producing betterqualith care. They realized that problemsz and costs go down when care is more InMesa County, the city of Grandf Junction implemented an integrated health care system that provides follow-upo care with patients. This follow-up care has helped lowerr hospital readmissions rates in Grand Junctio to just3 percent.
Comparde that to the 20 percentyrate nationwide, and it is cleafr that our community on the Western Slope of Colorado is onto something groundbreaking. High readmission rates are a huge problejm forour seniors. Nearly one in five Medicard patients who leave a hospital are readmitted within thefollowinbg month, and more than three-quartersz of these readmissions are Rehospitalization costs Medicare over $17 billion a It’s painful for patients and families to be caught up in theses cycles of treatment. All too care is fragmented – you go from the to the hospital, to a nursing back to the hospita l and then back to thedoctor again.
Patients are given medication instructiona as they are leavingthe hospital, many time s after coming off of strong They don’t know whom to call, and they are not sure what to ask theier primary care doctor. The both our Denver and Mesa County health communitiezshave found, is to provide patients leaving the hospital with a “coach.” This coacbh is a trained health professional connectingy home and the This coach teaches patients how to manage their healt h on their own.