Providing Access to Affordable Quality Health Care

It wasn’t easy for Roy Blunt’s mother and father to balance the family’s budget. Among other things, hospital bills, doctor bills, and pharmacy charges were paid out of pocket, without help from insurance.

For millions of middle class families like his, the big uncertainties in the monthly budget were the need for care and the cost of care. When Roy was ten, his mother lost her hearing.  Other things had to be delayed as the family met this challenge.  A catastrophic illness could be personally devastating to friends and neighbors, and often threatening the loss of years of saving.

Roy Blunt is committed to reforming the system today, in ways that help working families like his parents, those in need, and especially senior citizens. One test of a just society is how we provide for our mothers and fathers and grandparents, both individually and as a society.

We need big changes in health insurance. Consumers deserve lower prices and more choices. This means ensuring interstate competition among insurers. It also means we must complete the work of ending denial of coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

It is time for bold action to assure that everyone can afford basic coverage that assures access to quality health care, including some government help for those in economic need.

It means honoring our promise to senior citizens, that their later years will provide health care security in return for the taxes they paid faithfully during decades in the work force. Roy will not accept a central feature in ObamaCare bills offered in Congress, to make huge cuts in Medicare in order to get money for new spending programs that do not serve seniors.

When Congress listens to America and works on bipartisan solutions, great things can be accomplished. Tragically, the President and a one-party Congress have made no credible effort to work in a bipartisan way.

Because the present effort is so political, it tends strongly to reflect the very liberal policies of one-party Washington, including a health care system that is operated or controlled from Washington. Government-run health care has been tried in many countries and it has not worked well. A consistent weakness has been unsustainable cost increases that exceeded every projection. Another failure has been loss in quality of care, and rationing, often in the form of waiting lines.

Another blight on government-run care is the assault on freedom and privacy that goes with losing the right to pick your own doctor, and a doctor’s right to treat the patient as medicine would direct.

Roy has proposed health care solutions to achieve the goals of greater access to affordable, high quality care. Like most Missourians, he believes that a nationalized health care system, by whatever name its supporters might choose, will not serve Americans well. Read Roy's health care solutions HERE.

Cancer Victims

Roy Blunt is a 3 time cancer survivor. Health care run or controlled from Washington would be a terrible step backward for men, women, and children who must battle cancer and other diseases. Canada and the United Kingdom are among the government-run systems with higher cancer death rates than the U.S. Turning back the clock is not acceptable in America.

Medicare

Roy very strongly opposes ObamaCare’s huge cuts in Medicare – with the cuts to be chosen by a special commission, without accountability to us. The Administration and its allies have targeted senior citizens for much of the money they want for their new plan. Roy Blunt will not accept any such plan. It is absolutely unacceptable to begin a huge new federal spending program by slashing through the health care safety net promised to our parents and grandparents.

Roy also helped lead the way in creating affordable prescription drug coverage under Medicare and providing seniors with new options, more choices, and lower prices.