SHAHEEN: WE MUST ACT TO CONTROL HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR FAMILIES AND BUSINESSES

(Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen toured Cheshire Medical Center in Keene today and discussed the need for health care reform with patients and staff.

"Health care costs are rising at an unsustainable rate for New Hampshire families and small businesses," said Shaheen. "Everyone deserves stable health care coverage they can count on, regardless of the job they hold or the curveballs life may throw their way. We need to stabilize costs for consumers, businesses, and our government by injecting competition into the insurance market, and the plan we are working on in Congress would accomplish this critical goal." 

"We are delighted Senator Shaheen chose Cheshire Medical Center / Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene to share the ideas of our nation's leaders concerning reforming our health care system," said Art Nichols, CEO of Cheshire Medical Center.  "Our patients, physicians and staff appreciated the informative exchange of ideas and the opportunity to share our community vision of becoming the healthiest community in the nation by the year 2020."  

Since taking office, Shaheen has received over 14,000 letters or phone calls from people in New Hampshire on the topic of health care reform.  Last month, she held a health care telephone town hall where over 15,000 callers joined the health care discussion.  Shaheen has also recently visited Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, Elliot Senior Health Center in Manchester, Lamprey Health Care in Newmarket, and Indian Stream Health Center in Colebrook, where she discussed how to control costs and provide better health care with patients, doctors, nurses, and health care administrators.