Health Care

Pat Meehan supports a range of health care reforms designed to reduce premiums, lower health care costs, increase access to affordable health care insurance, prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage of individuals with pre-existing conditions, and a range of other initiatives.

As the husband of a nurse practitioner, he knows that our current health care system is in need of reform and that health care costs are skyrocketing out of control. In many cases, those costs are being passed on to local residents in the form of changes to their health insurance plans, including higher co-pays, increased premiums, and increased prescription drug costs.

But the recently-passed care legislation is not the answer. It will jeopardize millions of jobs, force people out of their existing plans, increase premiums, cut Medicare for seniors, and raise taxes. Pat Meehan believes we can reform the health care system without these negative impacts.

Pat Meehan believes we also need to take a serious look at increasing competition among health care providers by allowing individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines and institute health insurance portability that will allow individuals to take their existing health plans with them as they move from job to job.

The health care problems facing our nation today are the result of more than 50 years of ineffective public policy, business practices, and other factors. Pat Meehan believes it is critical that we implement health care reform correctly and thoughtfully based on effective solutions that keep intact the existing doctor-patient relationship and protect the ability of every American to keep their existing health insurance coverage without a government takeover of health care.

Pat Meehan supports a number of health care reforms -- reforms that have bi-partisan support and that he believes Congress should take up immediately. They include:

• Allowing individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do.


• Ending discrimination by health insurance companies based on pre-existing conditions and prohibiting insurance companies from dropping coverage because of illness, unjustly canceling an individual’s policy, or instituting annual or lifetime spending limits on policies.


• Encouraging greater competition among health insurance providers – and reducing the cost of health insurance -- by removing the barriers and restrictions preventing health insurance from being purchased across state lines. Right now competition is limited to just a few providers in any particular region and companies have little incentive to innovate or operate more efficiently.


• Providing for portability of health care plans that will allow people to keep their existing plans when they move from job to job.


• Implementing medical malpractice and tort reform through the establishment of medical courts which encourage arbitration and settlements while also helping to weed out frivolous lawsuits before they become a strain on the judicial system and drive up costs to the health care system. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), as much as $10 billion dollars are spent each year on defensive medicine and unnecessary tests prescribed simply to pad patient records as doctors try to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits.


• Combating waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare by providing new funding and tools to tackle the problem and reduce costs. Under Pat’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia was the national leader in prosecuting healthcare fraud. Using the federal False Claims Act as an enforcement tool in drug switching and kickback cases, Pat’s office recovered more than $2.7 billion for taxpayer-supported federal health insurance programs through settlements with drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers. Pat believes we need to continue these efforts to combat waste and abuse by increasing funding for programs to tackle this problem and protect taxpayer dollars.


• Accelerating the deployment of new health information technologies that allow medical records to be shared among doctors with greater ease, increasing the quality of care of patients, reducing medical errors, and lowering costs.


• Providing tax credits for lower-income families who are not eligible for existing public coverage to defray the cost of purchasing health insurance. Families eligible for public coverage should also have the right to use their current public support to enroll in private plans if they choose.


• Establishing incentives and rewards to states that give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms to increase accessibility, reduce premiums, and lower health care costs


• Expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that allow individuals to save for future medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis.


• Placing more emphasis on prevention and encouraging individuals to adopt healthy behaviors that can significantly reduce health care costs.


• Allowing for greater transparency in price and description of health care tests and procedures so that individuals can choose what works best for them and take control of their own health care decisions.


• Providing health insurance coverage for dependent children on a parent’s policy up the age of 26.