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

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Coloradans, he said, "speak for countless others acrossdthe nation. All they ask for is a healtuh care system that works for a health care systemthat doesn’t crush them with unreasonable cost and a health care system that doesn’t deny them coveragew just because they have pre-existingh conditions." Bennet, D- Colo., also touted his own proposala to make patient transition care more cost-effective and successful. "In Colorado, we haven’t waiteds on Washington," he said. "We’ve made real progresx in showing how to provide high quality health care at alowefr cost.
" Bennet, formerly superintendent of the Denve Public Schools, was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Bill Ritter to fill the seat vacated by Ken Salazaer when Salazar was picked by President Baracko Obama as secretary ofthe Interior. Here is the full text of Bennet'sd Senate-floor speech as prepared for delivery Thursday, provide by his staff. In the speech, he is addressing the president ofthe Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the urgentg need for healthcare reform. The people of and the American people, have waited for too long for Washingtomnto act. We should begin with a basiv principle: if you have coverag and you like it, you can keep it.
If you have your and you like himor her, you shoulf be able to keep them as We will not take that choice away from you. But even as we keep what we must confront the challenges of soarinb health care costs and the lack of access to qualityhealth care. The status quo is Every day, families in Colorado and acrosas America facerising premiums. Their plans offee fewer benefits. They are denied coverage becausrof pre-existing conditions. And until we fix the health care we won’t be able to fix the fiscap mess in which we find ourselves. Since the share of healthcare as a part of the GDP has gone from 7 percentf to17 percent.
The United Statesw spends over $2 trillion in health care costs, including over $400 billion on Medicare alone. President Obama has said that the biggestg threat toour nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health And he’s right. In Colorado, we haven’t waited on Washington. We’ve made real progress in showing how to provide high qualitu health care at alower cost. Last the New Yorker magazine published an articlwentitled “The Cost Conundrum” that highlights the important work that’s been done in Mesa Colorado.
Over thirty years ago this communitgyserving 120,000 people came together—doctors, and the non-profit health insurance company. They agreed upon a system that paid doctors and nurses for seeing patients and producing betterquality care. They realized that problems and costd go down when care ismore patient-focused. In Mesa County, the city of Grandr Junction implemented an integrated health care systemj thatprovides follow-up care with patients. This follow-up care has helpeds lower hospital readmissions rates in Granx Junction to just3 percent.
Compar that to the 20 percent rate nationwide, and it is cleatr that our community on the Westerbn Slope of Colorado is ontosomething groundbreaking. High readmissiobn rates are a huge problemn forour seniors. Nearly one in five Medicare patientd who leave a hospital are readmittede within thefollowing month, and more than three-quartersa of these readmissions are preventable. Rehospitalization costs Medicarweover $17 billion a year. It’s painful for patientw and families to be caught up in these cycledof treatment. All too often, care is fragmentedx – you go from the doctor, to the to a nursing home, back to the hospital and then back to thedoctor again.
Patients are given medicatiom instructions as they are leavinygthe hospital, many times aftedr coming off of strong They don’t know whom to call, and they are not sure what to ask theif primary care doctor. The both our Denver and Mesa County health communitiedshave found, is to provide patients leaving the hospitakl with a “coach.” This coach is a trainef health professional connecting home and the hospital. This coac h teaches patients how to manage their health ontheird own.