The nation's health care system is broken and needs to be repaired, Sen. Ken Salazar, D - Colo., said during a visit to Las Animas Monday afternoon.
    His visit was part of a day-long listening tour on health care  that started in Walsenburg and was to end in Springfield Monday evening.
    "There is a myth out there that the American health care system is okay. The fact of the matter is we have a system that is broken," Salazar told about two-dozen people who had gathered at the Senior Opportunity Center in mid afternoon.

    He predicted the next president would want to address three major issues in his first 100 days of office — Iraq, energy and health care.
    Salazar said 16 percent of this nation's gross domestic product is spent on health care. Other developed countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan half that, and for care that is often of higher quality.
    One of the problems is that administrative and overhead cots consume 30 percent of all health care spending. Within the Veterans Administration, the overhead is only five percent.
    Among the 19 most developed nations, the U. S. ranks last in preventable deaths, the senator said.
    U. S. life expectancy is in the bottom half of these same 19 nations. At the same time, infant mortality rates are twice that of the other developed nations.
    "We have poor outcomes," Salazar said.
    He said 48 million in this country are without health insurance, including 900,000 in Colorado. Another 25 million are under insured and cannot afford to pay for full coverage.

    He said one in five Americans do not go to doctors when they are ill because they cannot afford it.
    For those who do have insurance, the average family premium is about $12,000 a year.
    Producing a chart, Salazar said the following five steps would help correct t he health care crisis: control costs; provide insurance for all; adopt electronic medical records; focus on prevention; pay for what works, and empower the consumer.
    To provide broader access, Salazar said Congress has improved Medicare payments to health care providers, enacted a moratorium on Medicaid changes, pass a bill to broaden child health insurance and he cosponored a small business health options act.
    During a question and answer period following his talk, the Democrat asked the senator if broadening health coverage to more people would require more doctors.

    The senator said there is already a shortage of doctors, nurses and pharmacists and there is a need to train more of them. He said a loan forgiveness program might encourage more medical workers to commit to work in rural areas where the shortages are most acute.
    Salazar said a retired cardiac specialist told him that when he was working he put in long days seeing his patients and making his rounds. The cardiac doctor said he observed primary health care providers working just as hard and long as he was during the day — but they earned one-tenth as much money. The trend for most doctors to become specialists has resulted in a shortage of primary care doctors.
    Salazar said there are other inefficiencies in the health care system. The Veterans Administration is allowed to negotiate with drug companies and as a result they can purchase drugs for VA patients for only 20 percent of what Medicare pays. Medicare is forbidden by law from negotiating for lower drug prices.

    The drug companies are a powerful force to contend with, the senator observed. Yet he counter pointed that statement by observing that his 86-=year-old mother, who had a triple by pass heart operation 10 years ago, is doing very well and reads a novel a week. And he credits the drugs she is taking for prolonging her life and improving its quality.
    Sen. Salazar said pharmaceutical companies should be part of the solution.
    During his visit, the senator said the recently passed farm bill was the best ever passed by Congress, though it took three years to create and had to survive two presidential vetoes.
    He said he is also committed to creating the Arkansas Valley Conduit "the right contribution of federal funding."
    As he concluded  his talk, he promised not to forget the residents of small rural areas such as Bent County.

    The senator alluded to previous generations that overcame the Great Depression and fought a world war.
    "It is now our time to work on signature issues, war and peace...health care."
    He noted that in Washington, D. C. many politicians are on a power quest, rather than doing the job to which they were elected.
    As Salazar greeted local party regulars and citizens following his talk, Mike Merrill commented that the American people have to work together. "I think he is right on health care," said Merrill, coordinator for Southeastern Colorado Regional Emergency Trauma Advisory Council.
    Merrill said what the U. S. should do is study the other 18 developed nations that deliver better health care at lower cost and and adopt one of their health care systems as the model for the U. S.
    Bent County Commissioner Tom Wallace,a Republican, said Senator was urging bipartisan cooperation to help facilitate a solution.
    "There are unlimited answers," Wallace added.
    "It was very informative," said Jill Ard, regional director of nursing for Valley Wide Health Systems, Inc. She arrived at the meeting toward the end of Salazar's talk but noted she had also listened to him in Rocky Ford earlier in the day.
    Ard noted that rural areas have a problem keeping health care providers. She agreed with Salazar that one solution is for rural areas to invest in the schooling costs for doctors from rural areas and who want to come back to practice.