Affordable and Accessible Healthcare

 

Guiding principle: All American families deserve the security that basic affordable, accessible health care provides.

Shelli will fight hard to move our nation’s approach to health care policy in a direction that promotes less costly, more efficient health care by expanding coverage, reducing waste and abuse, and focusing on more preventive care. The sooner we close the gap between the insured and uninsured, the sooner we can reduce the cost to taxpayers of inefficient health care practices such as using hospital emergency room care for non-emergencies. Shelli supports the reforms in the recently passed federal health care legislation that expand coverage for dependent children up to 26 years of age, eliminate pre-existing illness provisions, and close the gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage known as the “donut hole.” She also realizes that the ACA is not perfect and will require improvement as it is implemented. As such, she supports a repeal of the medical device tax, which threatens innovation, harms patient care and weakens the position of the United States and Indiana as a global leader in medical device technology.
 
What are Shelli’s views on the broad need for health care in the U.S.?
 
Shelli Yoder believes healthcare reform is far too important to continue being derailed by partisan politics. That’s why Shelli says it’s time to move beyond the bitter gridlock that has slowed progress. It’s time to implement reforms that will improve health care for all Hoosier families while creating new healthcare jobs for Indiana workers.
 
A major reason Shelli is running for Congress is to bring a fresh, new, bipartisan approach to implement commonsense solutions to the healthcare problems that have plagued our families for too long. Problems, like inconsistent coverage, discriminatory insurance-company policies, and rising premiums, break family budgets and can lead to bankruptcy. Shelli wants to deal with these issues once and for all.
 
Shelli generally supports the health care reforms passed by Congress over the past several years, and recently upheld by the Supreme Court. These reforms stop insurance companies from denying coverage to you for a pre-existing condition or from charging you more or dropping you for getting sick; allow young adults to remain on their parent’s plan; make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors; protect women from gender discrimination; eliminate co-payments on preventive care; and extend affordable healthcare insurance to tens of thousands of Hoosier families that were previously left behind. The reforms also increase competition among insurance companies, and Shelli supports further efforts to bring greater competition to the healthcare industry.
 
If elected, Shelli will work to make improvements in existing health care law, including increasing access and lowering costs. In Shelli’s opinion, passage of a public option is central to further lowering costs and providing maximum access to health care.
 
Shelli Yoder believes that healthcare reform is both an economic and a moral imperative that will make our families more healthy and secure, thereby making Indiana’s economy stronger as our workers are more productive.

 

 

Views on Medical Research

 
Click on the link below to view Shelli’s responses to the ResearchAmerica questionnaire on health, science, and research.
 

I am pleased that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act.
 
As a result of the decision that was written by Chief Justice Roberts, provisions in federal law that prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing health conditions will stand. Provisions that expand coverage for dependent children up to age 26 are also still law.  The provision in the law that has saved Indiana seniors $93.5 million since 2010 in Medicare prescription drug coverage, i.e. closure of the “doughnut hole,” will remain. In addition, small businesses will continue to receive tax credits for offering coverage to their workers, and we will all have broader access to less costly preventive services.
 
These are all critical parts of the health care reform law that protect seniors, children, and hard-working families and provide us with the security we all need. At the same time, the Court placed limits on federal powers by holding that states may not be sanctioned by the federal government for choosing not to participate in Medicaid expansion.
 
I am also pleased that the majority included members of the Court appointed by both Republican and Democrat Presidents. Progress in our country will only come through bi-partisanship, a quality that has unfortunately been seriously lacking in Congress in recent times.
 
As 9th District Congresswoman, I pledge to work to make our health care laws responsive to the needs of all Hoosiers and to use the spirit of compromise and bi-partisanship to improve upon the health care reform law where needed.