Drugs: Costs/Importation

• Supports measures that lower prescription drug prices.
• Use the purchasing power of Universal HealthMart to provide incentives to keep costs down, as well as to create transparency — the ability to compare prices and effectiveness.
• Backs legislation to allow Americans to import FDA-approved drugs from industrialized countries such as Canada.
• Close the gap in Medicare benefits, the so-called "doughnut hole," which occurs when a Medicare recipient hits $2,400 in coverage, and then must pay for his or her drugs out-of-pocket until costs reach $5,451.

Drug Safety

• Expand drug safety by setting up a Center for Postmarket Evaluation and Research for Drugs and Biologics, under the direction of the FDA. The center would conduct risk assessments, survey drug studies and research, and determine whether further study is needed.

Electronic Record Keeping

• Invest in health care technology, as well as data collection, to reduce administrative costs.
• Monitor and improve patient care by using information technology as part of his Universal HealthMart plan.

Medicare/Medicaid

• Keep Medicare intact.
• Close the gap in Medicare benefits — the so-called "doughnut hole" — which occurs when a Medicare recipient hits $2,400 in coverage, and then must pay for his or her drugs out-of-pocket until costs reach $5,451.
• Extend Medicaid to poorer families.

Stem Cells

• Supports research using embryonic stem cells when they would be destroyed or discarded otherwise.

Public Health Issues

• Reward people who quit smoking, lose weight, or exercise to improve their health.
• Extend help for providers of long-term care for relatives

Abortion

• Allow a woman the right to choose.
• Expand adoption opportunities.

Information compiled by Michele Foust, WebMD Medical News.

Medically reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

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