Kerry Press Release: George W. Bush: Misleading on Health Care

[Skinner]

For Immediate Release
August 26, 2004

GEORGE W. BUSH: MISLEADING ON HEALTH CARE
RHETORIC/REALITY

RHETORIC: Reduce The Rise In Health Care Costs For All Americans. The President's policies address rising health care costs through measures such as limiting frivolous medical liability lawsuits and modernizing health care IT.

REALITY: Health care costs have increased by 50 percent since Bush took office. Their plan explicitly rejected making health care more affordable by refusing allowing Americans to buy quality prescriptions from Canada. (BLS)

RHETORIC: The President's health care policies tailor new coverage options to the needs of low-income children and families, employees of small businesses, and the self-employed.

REALITY: Bush Proposed Cutting Approximately 500,000 Children Off of S-CHIP. The President’s FY 2005 budget proposes to cut Medicaid by approximately $16 billion over 10 years. The Bush proposal will force between 490,000 to 650,000 children off of S-CHIP. This is at a time when 44 million Americans are uninsured – 4 million more than when President Bush took office. (Office of Management and Budget, FY 2005 Budget, Table S-8; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, “Up to 1.6 Million People – Including About Half a Million Children – Are Losing Health Coverage Due to State Budget Cuts,” 12/22/03)

RHETORIC: Give Patients And Doctors Not Government Bureaucrats-- More Control Over Health Care Decisions. The President's plan uses consumer-driven health care and competition in the private marketplace to lower costs-- not a federal government takeover of health care which will increase costs and pass them on to the taxpayers.

REALITY: The Bush Administration has continued blocking bipartisan efforts to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights in Congress. Worse yet, the Bush Administration sent their lawyers to the Supreme Court to stand with the HMOs and argue against giving patients the right to sue HMOs. (s. 1052

RHETORIC: New Tax-Free Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Help More Americans Gain Affordable Health Care Coverage. The President signed legislation creating HSAs, which will help individuals and businesses save a substantial amount on health insurance premiums and gain more control over their health care spending.

REALITY: Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Will Benefit the Wealthy and Raise Health Care Costs for Many. HSAs will divide Americans between the sick and healthy with affluent workers choosing HSAs while sicker workers will tend to remain in comprehensive coverage. The people remaining in comprehensive coverage are more expensive to insure, driving their premiums higher. Some employers will choose this new option to drop health insurance for their employees while others will reduce their contribution. Independent estimates suggest HSAs will leave more than 1.4 million workers currently insured without coverage. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 6/5/96; Urban Institute, April 1996; American Academy of Actuaries, May 1995; Consumers Union, 8/10/00; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 5/10/04)

RHETORIC: Refundable Tax Credits To Help Low-Income Americans Buy Health Insurance. The President has proposed refundable tax credits of up to $3,000 for families and $1,000 for individuals to help low-income workers buy health insurance coverage. If approved by Congress, this proposal would provide coverage for an estimated 4-5 million Americans.

REALITY: Tax Credits for Individual Health Insurance Leave a Big Hole. In 2002 George Bush first proposed a $3,000 health insurance tax credit for families making up to $25,000. In February 2004, George Bush proposed the same exact plan – even though the cost of health insurance continues to grow by 10 percent every year. As a result, low-income families have to pay more than twice as much under the Bush plan.

            Insurance   Bush Tax     Cost for
            Premium     Credit       Low-Income Family
2002         $7,961      $3,000	      $4,961	   
2003         $9,068      $3,000       $6,068
2004         $9,793      $3,000       $6,793
2005         $10,577     $3,000       $7,577

Note: Assumes a family of four making up to $25,000. Premiums for 2002 and 2003 are based on Kaiser data. The 2004 and 2005 premiums are projected using the conservative assumption that health insurance costs increase by 8 percent per year, well below the average annual increase of 12 percent from 2000 to 2003

RHETORIC: Association Health Plans (AHPs) To Help Small Businesses Provide Coverage For Their Workers. Small businesses often cannot afford employee health benefits. The President has supported allowing small businesses to band together and negotiate lower health care premiums for their workers and families-- just like bigger
businesses and unions do. This will give America's working families greater access
to health insurance

REALITY: The Congressional Budget Office Found that Associated Health Plans Could Raise Premiums for 4 out of 5 Small Businesses. Studies show that AHPs will increase the cost of insurance for many small businesses and will increase the number of uninsured. The CBO estimated that AHPs could raise premiums for 4 out of 5 small businesses that keep traditional insurance. A study by Mercer found over 1 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage. (CBO, January 2000; Mercer Risk, Finance and Insurance)

RHETORIC: Millions Of Low-Income Americans Made Eligible For Coverage. Since January 2001, the Department of Health and Human Services has granted state waivers and approved state plan amendments that, when fully implemented, will help states extend coverage to an estimated 2.6 million low-income Americans eligible under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

REALITY: Independent experts disagree: "The statement gives the impression 'they have extended coverage to 2.6 million more, and that is not really true,' said Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. 'In reality, only 200,000 of them got coverage' because of Bush administration efforts." (Ceci Connolly, "Bush Health Plan Seems to Fall Short," 8/22/2004)

RHETORIC: Greater Access To Health Care For The Most Vulnerable Through Community Health Centers. The President proposed a five-year plan to fund 1,200 new and expanded health center sites to serve an additional 6.1 million people by 2006. Today, he is well on the way to meeting that goal, with more than 600 new or expanded health centers delivering care to 3 million additional Americans, including many uninsured and low-income children and families in medically underserved communities.

REALITY: Who is George Bush trying to fool? Since Bush took office, 5.2 million more Americans have lost their health insurance with 1.4 million people having lost coverage in the last year alone. In total, 45 million people are now uninsured, as indicated by the new Census numbers released today.

RHETORIC: Medical Liability Reform To Help Rein In Unnecessary Health Care Costs. Too man ylawsuits without merit are being filed against doctors and hospitals, forcing them to practice defensive medicine, driving good doctors out of practice, and driving up health care costs for everyone. The President believes people who have a legitimate claim must have their day in court. But to make health care more affordable and accessible to everyone, we must reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits and limit excessive jury awards. No patient has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit.

REALITY: Bush is trying to distract attention from his failure to address rising health care costs. States that have tried approaches similar to what Bush is suggesting have not seen lower premiums for doctors, and have not seen overall lower health care costs. According to Weiss Ratings, the median annual premium between 1991 and 2002 increased more in states with caps (48.2 percent) than in states without caps (35.9 percent). (June 2003)

RHETORIC: Health IT Initiative To Reduce Errors, Cut Waste And Lower Costs. The President launched an initiative to make electronic medical records universally available for Americans in the next ten years.

REALITY: Instead of a serious plan to reach this goal, the Bush administration has proposed only a few demonstration projects on a limited budget of $100 million. Here are just a few examples of the necessary private sector investment to make a difference: Massachusetts alone is spending $100 million to implement a limited electronic prescribing system. (Advanced Technologies to Lower Health Care Costs and Improve Quality, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (Fall 2003))

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[bigtree]

1. The thing george says the most on the stump

is that tort reform will solve the health care crisis. He says nothing about costs, portability. And he touts the invisible drug benefit he pushed through Congress, and health savings accounts.

These shams have already passed Congress and no one has seen or felt anything but the worst effects of his negligence and indifference to the real needs of Americans. John Kerry's prescriptions far outshine Bush's bumbling rhetoric.

Thanks for posting this-