Heinz Kerry touts health-care plan
"As a nation, we have to focus on wellness and prevention — it's cheaper, smarter and much more joyful," she said.
Heinz Kerry's visit to the public-health center is part of a whirlwind tour of the West that will include stops in Oregon and Arizona later this week.
She spoke to a Bellevue crowd of about 60 people yesterday, many of them nurses and public-health workers, before attending a women's rally in Seattle.
Her message at Eastgate was clear: Americans need better access to health insurance so they can prevent disease and illness, instead of treating it after the fact. And those health plans need to be affordable.
Sen. Kerry's health-care plan promises to lower family premiums by $1,000, improve access to prescription drugs and provide health insurance to all children. He also plans to extend health-care coverage to 95 percent of all Americans, Heinz Kerry said.
Reducing inefficiencies, such as needless paperwork, in the current health-care system would provide some of the money needed to help accomplish this, she added.
In front of a large sign that read "A Conversation with Teresa," Heinz Kerry sat flanked by three Washington state residents, each with a story to tell about their own health-insurance woes.
Cleo Peifer, 61, of Seattle told Heinz Kerry she and her husband had been providing insurance for themselves and the few employees of their mailing business.
Their monthly premiums kept increasing, up to $1,700. Peifer said she and her husband could no longer afford it and canceled the insurance plan.
"Now my husband and I just pay for what we need," Peifer said.
John Clinton of Everett told Heinz Kerry he's been taking only half of his prescription heart medication because it's so expensive.
"Don't tell my doctor," he joked.
Clinton, 65, has been uninsured since he was laid off about a year ago. He recently applied for Medicare.
Heinz Kerry said her husband's plan to allow the importation of drugs would help reduce costs.
At various points during her conversation, Heinz Kerry also plugged the need for stem-cell research and increasing the size and accessibility to insurance pools so small businesses and individuals could take advantage of better premiums. She peppered her talk with anecdotes from her family, her childhood in Africa and time she spent with her father, who was a physician.
Don Miller, an emergency-room nurse at Swedish Medical Center, said Heinz Kerry's attitude toward health care is encouraging.
"It shows she has an understanding of the problems facing the field of health care," he said.
At Seattle Central Community College, about 1,400 people turned out to hear Heinz Kerry, including Susan Peterson of Snohomish and her 4-year-old granddaughter, Hailey Rodriguez.
"I brought her here so she can see how the system works," Peterson said.
She said when she was 9 her father took her doorbelling for John F. Kennedy.
"It's important to be involved as a young child. People you elect determine the education you get."
Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan contributed to this report.
Kelly Kearsley: 206-464-2112 or kkearsley@seattletimes.com