Patient-centered bill key to reform

As a cancer survivor and owner of a family business that provides medical coverage for its workers, I have learned a number of valuable lessons from our employees' and my own experiences navigating our health-care system.

One of the most important relationships that exists today is the vital link between the patient and physician; crucial treatment decisions must continue to remain between those two parties. In large part, this is why comparative effectiveness research (CER) is so important. If done correctly, CER can help doctors and patients have the best available information to use in making decisions about a course of treatment. I can't think of many issues more important from a patient's point of view.

As health-care reform is debated in Washington, I support the patient-centered bill, HR 2502, that is co-sponsored by Rep. Melissa Bean. Patients, not rhetoric or politics, should be the basis of health-care reform in America.

Sandra Westlund-Deenihan

President

Quality Float Works Inc.

Schaumburg