John Adler knows what it is like to live without adequate health care. When his father suffered a debilitating series of heart attacks, his family faced what one in five Americans are facing now: limited or no health care, no income, and a pile of hospital bills. With rising food and gas prices in an increasingly unstable economy, too many Americans cannot afford to pay for their health care. Over the last six years, health insurance costs have risen four times faster than wages. Over 48 million Americans, including 1.3 million New Jerseyans, are living without health insurance. We spend so much per capita on health care; we have a right to demand better outcomes at a lower cost. John Adler supports a system that guarantees health care to all children and provides affordable health care to all who seek it.
John Adler has been a tireless advocate for expanding health care for New Jersey’s families. In the New Jersey Senate, John Adler voted in favor of expanding the FamilyCare program, which provides health benefits for hardworking families, and has sponsored legislation to establish incentives for corporations to provide health insurances for their employees.
Simple & Affordable Healthcare
John Adler understands that health care is simply not affordable for many of New Jersey’s families and businesses. We must ensure that all New Jerseyans have access to quality health care, without forcing them to choose between a trip to the doctor or making the monthly mortgage payment. We therefore need to focus on expanding preventative health care for all individuals. John Adler supports higher reimbursement rates for regular check-ups by pediatricians, general practitioners, and internists to encourage Americans to regularly visit their doctors. It is much easier and cheaper to keep Americans healthy and to detect problems early rather than to treat people once they have become sick. Regular doctor visits will catch illnesses and diseases early when they are easier to treat and before costs mount.
John supports a collaborative approach to health care reform involving employers, providers, consumer groups, carriers, and experts in economics and technology. We need to expand what works and fix what does not work. We need to make health care accessible to all who seek it, in a way that allows our businesses to thrive. The federal government must help small business afford health insurance for employees through risk pooling and catastrophic funds.
Children’s Health Care and SCHIP
Because of the state of the economy and rising healthcare costs, 48 million Americans, including 9 million children, are without healthcare. John Adler supports the extension and full funding of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
In October of 2007, he supported the governors of 44 states in their bipartisan lawsuit against the Bush administration to fully fund SCHIP. In Congress, John Adler will continue to support the reauthorization of SCHIP through 2012. He also will fight to help pass bipartisan legislation such as H.R. 976, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, which was vetoed by President Bush twice in late 2007. Programs like SCHIP have helped reduce the number of uninsured children in the United States by one third and can continue to drastically reduce the number of children who go without healthcare every day.
John Adler supports mandating health insurance for all of America’s children. No parent should have to worry about being able to take his or her child to the doctor. We can make health care affordable for all of America’s children by raising reimbursement rates for regular check-ups by pediatricians. Too many parents without insurance take their very sick kids to the expensive emergency room for primary care. With insurance, parents could get early diagnoses for their kids, reducing health care costs nationwide. This will keep our children healthy and allow our doctors to take care of minor concerns before they become serious medical problems. It will be much cheaper for America to keep our kids healthy instead of treating them only when they get sick.
Medicare
We need to increase reimbursement rates to Medicare providers to maintain access of older Americans to quality medical care. Seniors cannot afford higher Medicare co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions. John Adler understands that with chronic diseases increasing, we need improved medical and pharmacy wellness programs using state-of-the-art information technology to improve the quality of life for senior citizens.
Investing in the future
John Adler knows that in order to pave the way for new treatments and medicine, stem cell research is our best option. In the State Senate, John has been a vocal supporter of embryonic and cord stem cell research, helping to make New Jersey a leader in the country on the issue. In Congress, John will continue his support for stem cell research so that we can find the cures for families being broken apart by horrifying diseases like cancer, leukemia, MS, and childhood diabetes. John Adler supports accelerated investment in information technology to reduce medical, hospital, and pharmaceutical errors. He favors tuition assistance and loan reduction for medical students pursuing pediatrics and family practice to ensure a steady supply of trained doctors to help America’s families.
While our health care system is a major problem in our society, it is another challenge that the American people can overcome. We are simply paying too much for too few people to be covered. John Adler knows that our great people can conquer this challenge: we can find a way to expand the number of people who get health care while reducing the cost for all Americans.
