KEYSTONE, Colo.—Senate candidates Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer agreed Saturday on the need for better access to affordable health insurance but supported different ways to reach that goal.
Rep. Udall, a Democrat, and former Congressman Schaffer, a Republican, discussed medical issues during the Colorado Medical Society conference Saturday in Keystone.
“My belief is that we have to do everything we can to pursue every strategy possible to reconnect the relationship between patient and provider,” Schaffer said. “When you look at the answers that have been devised in the halls of government, whether the state capitol or Washington D.C., it seems that too often that relationship is second-guessed.”
Udall stated the need for everyone to have access to insurance.
“Health care needs to be about patients and doctors, not insurance companies and bureaucracies,” Udall said. “We need a system where every American has affordable access to quality health care.”
Schaffer talked about having similar industries form a coalition to purchase health insurance, the ability to purchase insurance nationwide, and a refundable tax-credit program that would allow low-income patients to apply the credit toward their insurance.
Udall touted comprehensive health care reform, including expanding the children’s health-insurance program, providing families with health-tax credits, providing small-businesses access to private and public health care pools, banning the practice of barring people from purchasing health insurance because of pre-existing conditions, and directing the federal government to barter for lower prices on prescription drugs.
Both candidates indicated that Medicare needs some reforms, and both supported antitrust laws against insurance companies.
