And im glad that i was put in the middle of this because for everything that something good comes of it and that is why im here today. As a Small Business i insured my family and my two employees and i had wonderful insurance. I was pleased with it. It was a Small Business plan and i might tell you a little fact now that you will find surprising. In 2008, just as you said, those premiums raised ridiculous amounts every year. One year was 26 for this great Insurance Plan. I was in sticker shock. It got to the point in 2008 that each individual in my Small Business plan to have a fully comprehensive plan would have cost 859. These are 2008. I did the math and i said, i cant possibly afford this so i contacted my Insurance Broker and i said what are my options . He mentioned the consumerdriven health plans. Not very familiar with it, a little bit leery about the concept, i explored it. It took me two years to sign on however. What i did in those 2008 without the Affordable Care act legisl
This isnt about creating a New Washington system to how to figure out how to pay people to provide care. This is much more broadly, about how do we establish policies to allow patients and families to remain in control of their health care and health care decisions. So so why did you guys bring up the reimbursement rates under medicare and medicaid as one of the reasons why there is this lack of adequacy of network i would say providers within some of the plans . I would say it is one of the reasons. Okay. So it so if the congress could help address the reimbursement rates and reform sgr, would that help or hurt the process . I think it all depends on how its done. And, again, id refer you back to the position of the Obama Administration who said in a court filing this year saying theres to general mandate under medicaid to reimburse providers, including hospitals in that, for all or substantially all of their costs. So the position of the medicare, sgr is focused on medicare. But im j
Think, central to the next chapter in this transition. I just wanted to comment on that. The second question as it relates to afghanistan is one that senator boxer raised and her work on this has been exemplary, on women and girls and in particular, i have a an amendment that we got through the National Defense authorization act which would require both state and defense to file a report on the efforts to promote the security of afghan women and girls just by way of itemization monitoring and responding to changes in womens security that will be part of the report. Secondly, improving gender sensitivity and responsiveness among the Afghan Security forces and increasing the recruitment and retention of women in the Afghan Security forces. So both with regard to the election and women and girls. Senator with respect to women and girls, i had a conversation with senator boxer earlier and with senator cardin, in which i committed to the ongoing significant efforts of secretary that secreta