Dear Mr. Giffen:
Thank you for contacting me regarding our nation's health care challenges. I appreciate hearing your
thoughts about this important issue facing our country. Like you, I feel that Americans should have access
to the best care possible by the best doctors without having to pay an arm and a leg. While America offers
the most extensive health care in the world, there are too many who simply cannot afford to stay healthy
and those who can must dig deeper into their pockets every day to pay for it. There is clearly a health care
crisis in this country, and I want you to know that I am doing everything I can to find a remedy.
I am firmly committed to working with all parties to find solutions that provide genuine access to affordable,
quality health care for every American. The time has come for reforms that will create a balanced,
common sense approach guaranteeing that Americans receive the care they deserve while protecting the
sacred doctor-patient relationship. Now is not the time to play politics with health care. I pledge to you that I
will continue to reach out to both Republicans and Democrats to achieve what matters most: more
affordable, more accessible, more patient-centered health care.
Part of that patient-centered approach must come from a new focus on wellness, prevention, and early
detection. Today, we have a system that rewards insurance companies for insuring people who are
healthy, and then we penalize companies that insure people who are sick. In fact, five preventable
diseases account for 75% of all health care spending in this country. If these diseases were detected at an
earlier stage, patients would have a better chance of survival and would not always require more
expensive and risky measures later on. The value of wellness and prevention is generally known to
doctors, who have been preaching its virtues for decades. But Washington politicians and bureaucrats
have stood between these doctors, who know your health best, and you by standing in the way of
preventative health measures.
Politicians and bureaucrats have also done their best to maintain the waste, fraud and abuse inherent in
the current system. Whether it's insurance companies forcing doctors to use more expensive tests or the
practice of defensive medicine, which compels doctors to conduct unnecessary tests to ensure that they
don't get sued, today's system is full of waste and mismanagement. It is estimated that 30 to 40 cents of
every health care dollar is simply covering waste. All of this drives up the cost of health care, making it
more expensive for those that have it, and putting coverage out of reach for many Americans.
Instead of making these and other patient-centered reforms, some in Congress are advocating for a
Washington-centered system that would standardize care by taking decisions about your health out of the
hands of you and your doctor and giving them to a committee of bureaucrats and politicians. I believe that
nobody in the government should be telling you that you can't get a medication that's going to help
prolong your life or that your child can't see their doctor when they are sick; yet in countries where the
focus has been taken off of the patient and put onto a "one-size-fits-all" system that takes choices out of
the hands of you and your doctor, that is exactly what happens. We must never get to that point.
I don't want Americans forced into the position where they may potentially have to wait weeks for tests and
months for treatments they need, if they can get them at all. I cannot stand for a system that would deny us
the ability to take care of our families unless we have the approval of Washington. Coastal South Carolina
is blessed with some of the best medical facilities and best doctors in the nation, and no government
bureaucrat or regulation should stand in the way of you getting that quality care you need, when you need
it.
As Congress embarks on efforts to improve our nation's health care, please be assured that I will stand for
patient-centered care and against the kind of "one-size fits all" care that comes when the government
intrudes between you and your doctor. To get regular updates from my office sent to you by e-mail, please
visit http://brown.house.gov/updates. I am honored to serve you in Congress, and I look forward to
hearing from you on other matters of interest or concern.
Sincerely,
Henry E. Brown, Jr.
Member of Congress