When one explains the Bush Health Care Plan, one must consider the record of the Bush Administration on Health Care. The numbers of the uninsured have risen substantial (3.8 million), and the cost for health care coverage has risen at 4 or 5 times the rate of inflation. His Medicare prescription drug bill was passed unscrupulously, and the Medicare premiums have gone up 59 percent during his tenure. Employers are having a greater time trying to compete and nothing has been done to reform our health care system.

The Bush Plan

The "Bush Administration's" health care plan is a reflection of its past history. Policies related to its ties with the health care corporations, prescription drug companies, and privatizing of Medicare. The Bush Plan can best be explained from his speeches:

"A government-run health care system is the wrong prescription. By keeping costs under control, expanding access, and helping more Americans afford coverage, we will preserve the system of private medicine that makes America's health care the best in the world.

"Our health care problems will not be solved by a National Health Care Plan that dictates coverage and rations care."

The Bush Health Care Plan

Bush’s "Ownership Society"

"Pray that you don’t get Sick"

"Ownership society" and "individual responsibility" are "code words for giving health care insurers more leeway to "cherry-pick"—offering bargain-rate coverage to those who need it the least, while pricing care beyond the reach of many who need it the most. Bush’s "owner society" ideal for health care is embodied in the "Health Savings Account". Many healthy and wealthy people will flee group plans in favor of health savings accounts, leaving the older, more comprehensive health insurers (like the government) stuck with a growing proportion of poor and sick members. "Health Savings Accounts" are not only unfair and separate the one risk pool, but they are very risky. "Pray that you don’t get sick" if you have one of these policies because the high deductibles and premiums will continue to increase as premiums soar.

"Sorry to say, neither candidate has put together a UHC solution that would be comprehensible to the public, and that would meet all the applicable criteria."

Kerry’s health care proposal is basically what his staff calls a "down payment’ on a Universal Health Care system. As far as the election goes, we have no chance to move towards a Universal Health Care Plan or a solution for our health care woes with George Bush. He favors privatizing medicine and he probably won’t admit that he made a mistake or that corporate medicine is in control.

The Bush and Kerry plans ignore the problem of how to pay for health coverage expansions in the face of soaring health costs. These costs are "weakening the nation’s fiscal strength, straining family budgets and making it much harder to expand insurance coverage and improve the quality of care. The Bush plan fails to "address the intertwined issues of cost and the uninsured", both of which have gone up during his tenure. Kerry’s plan shifts employers cost to taxpayers and does nothing to control costs.

"Meaningful health care reform simply can’t happen in this country without bringing costs under control. The need to have a much better quality of healthcare for everyone that does not result in 200,000 deaths by medical error every year can only be accomplished with a single-payer system that saves money and controls costs. The Bush and Kerry plans do neither.

The Bush Plan

(Health Care for the Rich)

Consumer Driven Health Care

The president would spend $90.5 billion a year in the next 10 years on a plan that would bring health insurance to only about 2.1 million uninsured people. "The President’s plan leaves tens of millions of Americans uninsured, and many millions more squeezed by the soaring costs of an unfettered market."

Even Bush advisers estimate that the plan would trim only about 4 million people from the ranks of the uninsured. Many of the 18 million who could take advantage of the plan already pay for coverage. In addition, a typical midrange policy that pays for doctors' visits, prescription drugs, and outpatient care can cost between $4,000 and $6,000 in annual premiums--far above the $1,000 individual credit.

Tax Credits and Tax Subsidies--Bush's proposal would provide a write-off of up to $2,000 for families earning $30,000 or less, or $1,000 for individuals earning $15,000 or less. Those who pay no taxes would get a check when premiums come due. Most economists say tax credits big enough to be effective would cost too much. They won’t make a dent in the problem of the uninsured— The poor cannot afford to set a sufficient amount aside.

AHP’s – Association Health Plans—Exempt from state regulations and may attract the healthier people, making the traditional insurance market costlier—Won’t help to curb rising health care cost—Won’t help small business much—and won’t help cover the uninsured.

Community Health Centers –Government will subsidies these centers to increase their number. These are not hospitals., which are maybe needed more in rural areas.

High-Deductible Insurance Plans or Consumer driven health care plans– They lower cost by providing less coverage—they create division—promote a multi-tier system—and favor the rich. A reckless plan if a consumer of one of these plans gets severely sick. The cost could end up falling on the government.

Bureaucratic-Our For-Profit Health Care System – with its many insurance companies and HMOs is far more bureaucratic then a public system—Our Medicare system and National Heath Care Plans of other industrialized countries have proven that. We ration care and we have waiting lines in this country mainly for the poor. This will continue as long as more and more people become uninsured.

The Bush Record on Health Care:

There are now over 45 million uninsured Americans, 4 million more than when Bush took office. Health care spending soared by 11.4 percent last year, the fifth year of double digit increases. Bush’s response was to push through a Medicare prescription drug bill that rewarded pharmaceutical companies with a $139 billion windfall profit and prohibited Medicare from using its purchasing power to lower drug prices. The bill will result in 3 million retirees losing coverage and will actually hike drug costs for 13 million seniors.

The Bush Record on the Deficit

Bush inherited a projected ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion that would have paid off the entire national debt by 2011. Now, in 2004, the deficit is projected to reach a record high of $500 billion , and the deficit is anticipated to reach $7O8 billion a year by 2014. Some say the cost of the new Medicare bill will be $1.8 trillion over ten years (not $ 500 billion in money we don't have and must go in debt for).

Bush’s Health Care Plan moves a system from a group-insurance model to an individual-based one, which allows consumers "armed with new tax credits to shop for health care like they do any other product." It also gives "juicy tax breaks" to those who set aside money into health savings accounts for high-deductible health insurance policies. "The idea is that people will be choosier consumers the more they spend their own money". This plan co-insides with his privatizing of Medicare and the handing over all our medical care to the market. This irresponsible approach has no basis for justification. In Canada there is very little abuse of their health care system because it is public and paid for.

I call Bush’s health care plan; The Separation of State and Health Care.

Bush’s Health Care Policies

Tax-preferred health savings accounts (HSAs)—Tax shelters for the rich. Won’t make a dent in the uninsured.

Federally subsidized community health centers—Recommended that Congress make it easier for clinics run by religious groups to be eligible for federal grants. These are not hospitals and will cost the government plenty.

(AHPs) Association Health Plans "would allow small businesses to band together across state lines to negotiate lower insurance costs, would enable insurers to "circumvent’ consumer protections. These plans would attract healthier individuals, leaving companies with older and sicker workers not protected by state mandates facing higher charges. The result would provide two insurance pools" one for the healthy and the other for the sick." In Addition, there is no proof that AHPs will lower the number of the uninsured. AHPs are exempt from state regulations and may attract healthier people, making the traditional insurance market costlier.

Consumer Health Plans—A new type of plan featuring lower premiums and reduced coverage. Premiums for these so-called consumer choice plans are 2 to 35 percent lower, due to higher out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles and copayments.

Social Security—Bush wants to privatize the program by allowing workers to divert payroll taxes into personal investment accounts that would be invested in the stock market. If re-elected, the president will make it a second-term priority. Privatization is a deathblow to Social Security, "Social Security helps not only America’s retirees, but widows and widowers, people with disabilities and children who have lost a parent. Social Security has lifted many out of poverty.

Bush Plan 2

An analysis by the Denver Post found that more than 100 top officials in the Bush Administration were once lobbyists or lawyers for the industry they are now charged with regulating. Three of these lobbyists-turned-policy makers now regulate the drug industry: A top aid for the Department of Human Services who used to lobby for PhRMA, a former attorney for drug companies who is now chief counsel for the Food and Drug Administration, and Thomas Scully, a former hospital lobbyist who headed CMS.

One-quarter to one-third of adults under 35 went without insurance for all of 2002. The Village Voice reports that neither John Kerry nor George Bush has a plan that would help young adults without health coverage. Factor in the other burdens this demographic struggles with such as—college debt, poor job market, paltry job benefits—it looks like growing up is getting harder and harder to do.

What are the Solutions?

Can you say National Universal Health Care Plan?

Making the Bush tax cuts permanent will cost more than expected-- About $2.8 trillion over the next decade.

The projected short-fall of the tax cuts over a seventy year period will be about $12 trillion.

The projected short-fall for Social Security over the next 75 years will be around $3.8 trillion.

The short-fall for Medicare is already starting to happen.

Coverage and Cost Impacts of the President’s Health Insurance Tax Credit and Tax Deduction proposals-See www.kff.org/insurance/7049.cmf.

Tax Credits, Tax Subsidies, HSAs (tax free savings accounts), What happened to Market Competition to solve our health care problems?

Stark Differences between Bush and Kerry Health Plans: The New York Times May 14—"Nowhere are the policy differences between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush more apparent than on what to do about rising health care costs and the growing number of Americans without insurance". (Covering the Uninsured week—May 20). Wall Street Journal (MAY 13) Kerry plan makes government a reinsurance Company.

Bush / Kerry

Bush–Wants to rely on market-oriented alternatives to government programs.

Kerry–Would expand the existing system of employer-provided insurance and federal health programs for those who slip through the cracks.

Bush–portrayed Kerry’s health care plan as a "government takeover". A government take over with enormous price tag.

Kerry–It's wrong to allow skyrocketing healthcare to choke off new jobs, eat up family incomes and leave millions uninsured,

Bush–The health insurance system is–like pensions and workplace rules an outmoded, government-regulated relic of another era. He would replace it as part of his push for and "ownership society," which he says would give individuals more responsibility and control over their lives.

Kerry–healthcare’s rising cost is a big part of the "middle-class squeeze" that he says is Bush’s legacy.

Each campaign acknowledges that big problems plague the healthcare system, including three related but distinct issues:

The growing number of uninsured Americans, which the Census Bureau recently reported had grown to 45 million in 2003. That was the third year in a row that the number increased.

Rising costs for those who are insured. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance grew more than 11% in 2004–the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth.

Rising costs for seniors, who are the biggest consumers of prescription drugs. Although Medicare has begun subsidizing drug purchases, seniors will not be immune from rising healthcare costs. The Medicare premium for doctor bills and other now-hospital costs will jump 17% next year.

Kerry’s plan would cost about $659 billion over ten years and provide coverage for 27 million of the uninsured.

Bush’s plan would cost $90.5 billion over ten years and cover 2.5 million of the uninsured.

Kerry’s Plan

To increase coverage for lower-income people, Kerry proposes expanding federal-state health programs to cover almost all children and more working poor adults.
To expand access to private policies, he proposes subsidies for small business it ensure that workers buy their own coverage.
To cut private insurance premiums, Kerry proposes having the federal government take responsibility for workers’ "catastrophic" health costs–in excess of $50,000 a year–if their employers pass the savings to workers in lower premiums. Kerry estimates that could save families $1,000 a year.

Bush’s Plan

Bush’s approach is based on the assumption that costs are best controlled by making consumers more cost-conscious. So his plan aims to help people buy their own insurance or medical care rather than expand government and employer-based coverage. He argues that, on their own, consumers would find better deals on insurance and avoid unnecessary care.
To make insurance more affordable, Bush proposes a tax credit of up to $3,000 for low-income families to buy health insurance. He also proposes expanding a tax incentive for people to save their own money for routine healthcare.
As part of the 2003 Medicare law, Congress provided tax-favored health savings accounts for people with high-deductible polices. Contributions are tax deductible and money can be withdrawn tax free–provided it is used for medical expenses.
This provision was approved over the opposition of Democrats, who said it was a tax shelter that would appeal most to the wealthy and the healthy. That would leave traditional health plans with poorer and sicker people, who would face higher premiums, critics say.
Bush wants even more incentives for people to have these accounts. He would give employers tax credits for contribution to their workers’ accounts and provide money to low-income people to help them start health savings accounts.

Comment to both plans: A Single-Payer Plan would stand on its own without all these tax subsidies. A single-payer plan would save billions of dollars that could be used for better quality health care.

Go to the Kerry Health Care Plan. Thank-you