NBCC: Breast Cancer Caucus

NBCC sent a letter to each Presidential candidate requesting a video response telling us what he or she would do as President to eradicate breast cancer. We also asked for a written response to NBCC's core issues. Below is Chris Dodd's response.

On Friday, January 4, 2008, Chris Dodd withdrew his name as a presidential candidate.

1. Guaranteed access to quality health for all:

I believe in a health care system that provides truly universal, affordable coverage. My plan will create a health insurance marketplace called Universal HealthMart based on and parallel to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP). If it is good enough for Members of Congress, it is good enough for all Americans.

Individuals and businesses will contribute to Universal HealthMart based on their ability to pay. Premiums will go down due to leveraged negotiating power, spreading risk, reduced administrative costs, and incentives for technology and preventive care. Coverage will be portable-Americans' health insurance will follow them, not their jobs.

Within four years, my plan will phase in universal, affordable coverage to all Americans. No one will be forced into Universal HealthMart. If they wish, employers and individuals can maintain their existing insurance arrangements. Individuals and businesses will contribute based on their ability to pay. Union contracts and benefits will not be hurt. To the contrary, they can only get better. My plan is easy to accomplish because the model and infrastructure for the plan, the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHBP) plan, already operates in every county in the country.

With spending on healthcare at $2.3 trillion and rising, and with documented waste and duplication in the system, we should focus first on how to achieve savings in efficiency and better care to finance new coverage. We know, for example, that there is at least $98 billion in excess administrative spending within insurance companies. We know that electronic medical records could save $81 billion. Together these are far more than the estimated costs to cover the uninsured. And we know that poorly managed chronic illness accounts for 75 percent of health care costs.

To finance healthcare for every American, we need a system that creates universal responsibility by individuals, employers, insurance companies, and government. This means everybody is covered and every person and every business contributes based on their ability to pay. Over time, universal coverage will pay off as an investment in terms of improved health status, new models of better care, more affordable care, and higher productivity.

2. $150 million for the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program:

The Department of Defense Peer-Reveiwed Breast Cancer Research Program is an important initiative in working toward understanding what causes cancer, how to treat it and how we may someday soon be able to cure it. I will support $150 million for this program.

3. Enactment of the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act (S. 579/H.R. 1157):

I am a cosponsor of the Breast Cancer Environmental Research Act. I believe that identifying the causes of breast cancer will help us discover ways to prevent and treat it. I hope that this and other legislation will move us closer to solving the many mysteries posed by breast cancer.

4. Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program:

My health care plan preserves and funds Medicaid programs. These programs are vital to bringing quality healthcare to Americans who need it most.