Clinton adds health IT plank to presidential platform
- By Nancy zz_Ferris
- May 24, 2007
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is putting health information technology high on her list of ways to rein in the country's health care costs while improving the quality of care.
In a speech today outlining her presidential campaign platform for health care, Clinton proposed spending $3 billion a year to help doctors and hospitals implement health IT. In addition, she said she wanted to see a system of incentives for doctors to use the technology.
Clinton offered seven proposals for improving health care and cited research findings that estimate the total reduction in health care costs would be at least $120 billion a year. She said that money could be used to extend health coverage to all Americans.
"Health care costs are spiraling out of control," she said, listing studies that show Americans pay more for health care than people in any other country and get lower-quality care.
"Our administrative costs are by far the highest in the world," she added in her remarks at George Washington University in Washington.
"We're going to try again this year" to win final passage of a health IT bill, Clinton said. A bill she sponsored last year was approved by the Senate, but the House could not agree on a bill and the measure died. If Congress cannot produce a bill in this session, she said, a future Clinton administration would take action on health IT.
This year's bill will require insurers that participate in Medicare, Medicaid and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, along with other federal health programs, to support health IT, she said.
"The veterans' medical system provides a perfect example" of how health IT can support better care while keeping costs down, Clinton said. The Veterans Affairs Department is treating 70 percent more patients now than it did at the end of the century, she said, with only a 41 percent increase in funding. Its annual per-patient cost for care that is considered some of the nation's best is about $5,000, compared with $6,300 in the private sector.
Clinton's campaign platform includes another health IT-related plank. She pushed coordination of care for chronically ill individuals and mentioned the need for information systems to support disease management programs.
The speech relied less on inspirational rhetoric than many campaign speeches do and more on citations of research findings. At one point, she half apologized for her speech's policy-wonk orientation.
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