U.S. Senator Ron Wyden's Heath Care Reform Plan

Should business owners still bear the primary burden of providing health care to working adults and their families, when the typical worker now changes jobs with great frequency and when U.S. businesses are competing against foreign companies that have governments pay their health bills?

For U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who will speak on February 22, the answer is clear: the employer-based system of health care is both outmoded and ailing. His Healthy Americans Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett (R) of Utah, would require Americans to buy a basic health insurance policy for themselves, reduce health care costs by putting individuals into large private insurance “pools,” slash health care paperwork and administrative expenses by eliminating several government bureaucracies and create bold incentives for more preventive care.

First elected to Congress in 1980 to represent Oregon’s third district, Wyden has served in the U.S. Senate since 1996, where he has become one of the nation’s leading voices on health care reform. Sen. Wyden currently serves on the Senate Finance, Intelligence, Aging, Budget, Energy and National Resources committees. On the Energy Committee, he chairs the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. Prior to serving in Congress, Wyden earned a law degree from the University of Oregon, taught gerontology and worked as an advocate for the elderly.