Senator Shaheen and Freshman Senators Introduce the Freshman Innovation and Value Package as part of Health Care Reform, December 8, 2009

(Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, along with ten other freshmen Democratic Senators, today introduced a collection of amendments that will broaden and accelerate efforts to encourage innovation and lower costs for consumers across the nation's health care system. The Freshmen Innovation and Value package, which has been endorsed by some of the nation's leading business, consumer and health provider organizations, including Business Roundtable, AARP, AFL-CIO, New America Foundation, and others.  In New Hampshire, these cost containment provisions have been endorsed by the Dartmouth Hitchcock Health System and New Hampshire Voices for Health.  The Freshmen Innovation and Value package would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act currently under consideration by the Senate. 

The cost containment amendments strengthen the Senate's current health reform proposal by establishing public-private arrangements to better synchronize changes across medicine, with an eye towards preventing cost-shifting to others; eliminating red tape and fighting fraud, which drives-up costs; and compelling Medicare to become a leader in overall health reform by speeding the move toward a higher-value, lower-cost model for the future.