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As Congress goes back into session this week, a new leader will run the show in the United States Senate. He’s Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee.
Granted, the new Majority Leader has a lot on his plate. Still, KSL hopes the physician turned politician will follow through with his personal pledge to address the nation’s escalating heath care crisis.
Actually, Frist’s unexpected ascension to the Senate’s most powerful post should bode well for health care issues. He’s a respected cardiovascular surgeon. His father and brother founded the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain. Frist has uncanny first-hand knowledge of a system in disarray.
May we suggest a few places he could begin to fix it?
-Close the loopholes that allow pharmaceuticals to prolong patents on drugs so that lower-cost generics would be available to American consumers.
-Enact a prescription drug benefit for seniors within the context of a modernized Medicare program.
-Find a way to make health insurance more accessible to the 38-million people in this country who are uninsured.
No one person can bring about change in a system as complex and out-of-control as health care. Still, Senator Bill Frist has the background and now the power to thrust vital health care issues toward the top of the legislative agenda.
