Health Care

The Issue: Our nation's health care system is broken. As Washington and the insurance industry cling to the status quo, our existing health care system becomes more costly, wasteful, and ineffective by the day. Families and businesses are feeling the strain of a health care system that costs too much, covers too few, and has all the wrong priorities. Insurance companies are making record profits while millions of Americans worry about the health care security of their families.

In Texas, the problem is even worse. Years of neglect by our elected leaders in the Statehouse and in Congress have led to the highest number of uninsured in the country. According to analysis of Census data, nearly 45% of Texans don’t have health insurance for all or part of the year. That's more than nine million Texans. But the real failure is the number of Texas children who aren’t covered. More than 20% of Texas youngsters don’t have coverage–one in five Texas children.

There must be a better way to protect our families. We should start looking at health system reform from the exam room up, not the corporate board room down.

Texans deserve a health care system that works for them – not just for Big Insurance and the Washington lobbyists propping up the status quo.

Texans deserve leaders who will demand real health care security for Texas families, cut costs for Texas employers, and provide the options and accountability that the current system lacks.

The Solution: Rick Noriega believes that everyone should have access to quality, affordable health care. Families and businesses are feeling the strain of a health care system that costs too much, covers too few, and has all the wrong priorities.

Noriega supports guaranteed coverage through partnerships between the federal government, states, employers, and private health care providers. Health care reform must modernize the health care system and contain costs by prioritizing preventive care, reducing administrative costs, reducing insurance overhead, and allowing the federal government to negotiate lower pharmaceutical prices.

Rick Noriega is offering a new approach to free Texans from the waste, inefficiency, and bureaucracy that plague the current health care system by improving three key areas:

1 – ACCESS – Knowing that your family’s safety and security will be protected in case of a health disaster should be a given in our state and our nation. Noriega wants to center on improving health security and access for all Texas families and provide universal coverage for all Texas children. This Noriega plan will:

Cover all children and expand coverage to cover more than just emergency care.
Create an 'Insurance Connector' to link all individuals with an affordable insurance plan suitable to their needs and ability to pay.
Make enrolling in an insurance plan less complicated and more accessible.
Protect our seniors by fixing Medicare.
Protect both doctors and patients through common sense rule changes.

2 – AFFORDABILITY – Health care costs in the United States are out of control. Each year, uninsured Americans spend $33 billion out of their own pockets on medical care in addition to the $41 billion in uncompensated costs they place on the health care system. Rick Noriega’s plan is focused on cutting health care costs by prioritizing incentives, prevention, and technology. This plan will:

Develop tax incentives for small businesses to provide health insurance.
Create a system for electronic medical records to make medical care more efficient.
Maintain a national focus on preventive care to lower long-term medical costs.

3 – ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY – Our current health care system is wasteful and inefficient. It is more concerned with how policies affect the insurance industry than how policies affect real people. Rick Noriega's plan will empower Texans to have more information and control over their health care by facilitating access to:

The calculation of premium: health insurance recipients should have an avenue to challenge what they perceive to be unwarranted premium increase;
Physician ratings: health insurance recipients should know how these rankings are compiled and rankings should be based on peer-reviewed criteria; and
The calculation of the medical loss ratio or the health benefit expense: health insurance recipients should know what is being spent on care and what is being spent on marketing and administrative costs.

The Noriega Record: In the Texas Legislature, Rep. Noriega was an advocate for expanding health care programs and increasing access to quality and affordable health care

Rep. Noriega voted for legislation that expanded the Children's Health Insurance Program, voted against legislation that reduced the number of children covered by, and voted for legislation that increased funding, and expanded the eligibility pool for health insurance programs.
Rep. Noriega voted for legislation that created a state prescription drug program for low-income Medicare beneficiaries as well as disabled workers.
Rep. Noriega co-authored a constitutional amendment which established the $3 billion Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Click here to download a PDF version of the health care plan.