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Here's the press release from the White House about Bush's health care agenda. Will post comments on later. John Schwarz
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- In His State Of The Union Address,
President Bush Proposed A Comprehensive Agenda To Make Health Care In America
More Affordable, Portable, Transparent, And Efficient. Americans enjoy the
best health care facilities and medical professionals in the world, but our
citizens are concerned about the cost of health care, losing their health
insurance if they change jobs, and a lack of information about price and
quality. The President believes that Americans deserve high-quality,
reasonably priced, reliable health care, and the security of knowing they will
have it when they need it.
The President's Reform Agenda Can Make The Health Care System More
Efficient While Continuing To Lead The World In Cutting Edge Medicine.
Americans should be able to choose their health care based on individual needs
and preferences and easily obtain understandable information about the price
and quality of the care they receive. Insurance should be portable and
affordable. The President proposes to improve health care through initiatives
to provide increased stability and peace of mind for working families across
the country. The President's health care agenda includes:
* Expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
* Making Health Insurance More Portable
* Improving Information On Price And Quality To Make Health Care More
Transparent
* Leveling The Playing Field For Individuals And Small Business Employees
* Passing Medical Liability Reform
* Improving Access To Health Information Technology
* Assisting Vulnerable Americans
Expanding Health Savings Accounts
HSAs Are Making Health Care More Affordable And Accessible. Established
by the Medicare bill signed into law by President Bush in December 2003, HSAs
allow Americans to save tax-free dollars in accounts to pay for their health
care expenses. These accounts are accompanied by high-deductible
comprehensive insurance policies that cover preventive care and larger medical
bills. Since January 2004, more than 3 million Americans have enrolled in
HSAs, which are helping make health insurance more affordable for individuals
and companies while providing greater choices and flexibility in how workers
and employers spend their health care dollars.
The President proposed to build on this success and expand HSAs by:
* Giving Individuals That Purchase HSAs On Their Own The Same Tax
Advantages As Those With Employer-Sponsored Insurance. The President
proposes making premiums for HSA-compatible insurance policies
deductible from income taxes when purchased by individuals outside of
work. In addition, an income tax credit would offset payroll taxes
paid on premiums paid for their HSA policies. This will level the
playing field for those who currently do not have access to employer
health care plans, including the self-employed, unemployed, and workers
for companies that don't offer health insurance. For Americans who are
not working, especially early retirees, premiums for the purchase of
non-group HSA plans would now be allowed tax-free from an HSA account.
* Eliminating All Taxes On Out-Of-Pocket Spending Through HSAs. The
President proposed allowing Americans with HSAs and their employers to
make annual contributions to their accounts to cover all out-of-pocket
costs under their HSA policy, not just their deductible as provided
under current law. This will allow patients to cover all their out-of-
pocket expenses tax-free through their HSA. The new proposal would
also provide a credit for payroll taxes paid on HSA contributions made
by individuals. The President's HSA proposals are projected to
increase the number of Americans with HSAs from the current 14 million
to 21 million by 2010, a 50-percent rise.
Making Health Insurance More Portable
Americans Should Be Able To Take Their Health Insurance With Them When
They Change Jobs, Move, Become Self-Employed, Or Leave The Labor Force.
Americans should not have to worry about changing doctors, learning a new
insurance company bureaucracy, having their premiums go up if a family member
is sick, losing their insurance tax advantage when leaving employment-based
plans, or being subject to more costly mandates. The lack of portability can
lead to "job lock" in which workers are hesitant to leave their job if anyone
in the family is in less-than-perfect health.
* Enabling Portable HSA Insurance Policies. Employers would have the
ability to offer workers a Portable HSA insurance policy that the
employees would own, control, and be able to take wherever they went.
Their premiums would be tax-free and would not increase based on their
health status at the time that they changed jobs, left the labor force,
or moved. Employers could contribute to new employees' Portable HSA
insurance policies -- no matter where the policy was originally
purchased. Employers would have the ability to decide whether or how
much to contribute to these plans, but whatever they contributed would
be tax-free.
* The President Supports Permitting The Purchase Of Health Insurance
Across State Lines. This would allow Americans to buy the best health
insurance, based on their own circumstances, instead of being limited
to only the policies available in their state. Allowing Americans to
purchase health insurance policies issued in other states will provide
much-needed choice and competition, while retaining the consumer
protections of enforcement and licensing states currently provide.
Improving Information On Price And Quality To Make Health Care More
Transparent
Americans Should Be Able To Easily Obtain Understandable Information About
The Price And Quality Of Health Care. The President urges medical providers
and insurance companies to make information about prices and quality readily
available to all Americans prior to the time of service or treatment.
Leveling The Playing Field For Individuals And Small Business Employees
The Administration Will Work To Make It Easier For Small Businesses To
Provide Health Care For Their Employees. Small businesses are at a real
disadvantage in providing health benefits for workers. Because they buy
coverage for only a handful of workers at a time, small businesses pay much
higher costs than large employers or labor unions for similar health benefits.
In part because costs go up over time and one sick worker can cause a large
premium increase, small employers are less than half as likely to offer health
benefits to their workers as large employers.
* The President Calls On Congress To Allow Small Businesses To Form
Association Health Plans (AHPs). AHPs let small businesses join
together to purchase health coverage, giving them the same advantages,
administrative efficiencies, and negotiating clout enjoyed by big
businesses and labor unions. By purchasing coverage for thousands of
employees at a time, association members can pay lower premiums for
better coverage.
Passing Medical Liability Reform
The President Calls On Congress To Make The Medical Liability System
Fairer And More Predictable While Reducing Wasteful Costs. Frivolous lawsuits
and excessive jury awards limit access to health care by driving health care
providers out of many communities and increase costs by forcing doctors to
practice defensive medicine. Because lawsuits are driving many good doctors
out of practice, women in nearly 1,500 American counties are left without a
single OB-GYN. Medical liability reforms would secure an injured patient's
ability to get quicker compensation for economic losses, while reducing
frivolous lawsuits against doctors that raise the cost of health care for all.
The President has proposed proven, common-sense reforms that reserve punitive
damages for egregious cases where they are justified, limit non-economic
damages to reasonable amounts, ensure that old cases cannot be brought to
court years after an event, and provide that defendants pay judgments in
proportion to their fault.
Improving Health Information Technology(IT)
The Administration Is Working To Expand The Use Of Health IT To Lower
Costs, Reduce Medical Errors, And Improve Quality Of Care. In 2004, the
President launched an initiative to make electronic health records available
to most Americans within the next 10 years. We have already seen the Veterans
Health Administration and private-sector health systems use information
technology to increase quality, encourage savings, and reduce errors. With
electronic health records, information needed to treat patients effectively
will be a computer click away, no matter where the patient is receiving care.
The Administration has taken steps towards improving health IT, including:
establishing the position of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology and providing $100 million to fund projects harmonizing standards
for electronic information exchange; developing certification criteria to
ensure health IT investments meet proper standards; addressing privacy and
security issues; and developing models for a national Internet-based health
information system. Through the American Health Information Community (AHIC),
the Administration and the private sector are building a common framework for
implementing a nationwide electronic health records system.
* In 2006, The Administration Will Work To Develop Nationwide Health IT
Standards To Accelerate Patient Access To Electronic Health Records.
This includes a "medical clipboard" that can only be accessed with the
patient's consent, electronic medication history and lab results, and
ways to utilize health information tools to monitor potential disease
outbreaks such as pandemic influenza.
Assistance For Vulnerable Americans
The President Proposes Extending The Benefits Of HSAs To Low-Income
Families And Individuals Through Refundable Tax Credits. A family of four
making $25,000 or less will be able to get a refundable tax credit of $3,000
from the Federal government to help buy an HSA-compatible policy that covers
them for major medical expenses. These families will have the flexibility to
put up to $1,000 of the money directly into an HSA to pay for routine medical
expenses. What the family does not spend can be saved in the account and
carried over to the next year, earning interest tax-free.
The President Proposes Providing $500 Million Per Year To Encourage States
To Test Innovative Methods For Covering Chronically Ill Residents. Americans
who are chronically ill and are not part of an employer or public pool must
pay the full burden of their care through high premiums or, in some cases, go
without insurance at all. Some states have established high-risk pools to
insure chronically ill patients otherwise denied coverage, but there are also
other innovative approaches that could provide better coverage at lower costs.
The President proposes grants, awarded by the HHS Secretary, that would help
cover chronically ill patients by helping up to 10 states build on their
existing high-risk pools or test other innovative approaches such as risk-
adjusted subsidies or plans designed to manage chronic illnesses such as
diabetes.
The President Supports Allowing Employers To Make Higher Contributions To
The HSAs Of Chronically Ill Employees. Under current law, employers must
contribute the same amount to each employee's HSA. This prevents employers
from providing extra help to their chronically ill employees -- employees who
are more likely to use their HSAs to pay for their higher-than-average
out-of-pocket expenses. Permitting employers to make higher contributions to
HSAs of chronically ill employees will help those workers fund their HSAs and
pay their out-of-pocket expenses tax-free through their accounts.
The President Proposes Expanding AHPs To Allow Civic, Community, And
Religious Groups To Purchase Health Coverage For Their Members. This gives
individuals and their families, including the most vulnerable Americans, the
ability to pool together to buy health insurance outside of their workplace.
Giving people more choices to buy insurance at group rates from organizations
they already know and trust will help many Americans purchase quality,
affordable, and portable health insurance.
The President Supports Increased Funding For Community Health Centers. It
is vital to get care to poor communities, where access is often hardest to
come by, and basic primary and preventative services could do an enormous
amount to raise living standards and well being. The President has worked to
expand the number and reach of Community Health Centers. In 2001, there were
3,317 sites serving some 10.3 million patients. The Administration has funded
more than 800 new or expanded centers and will fund approximately 400 more in
the next two years. This has allowed Community Health Centers to build the
capacity to serve more than 3.5 million additional Americans, with nearly 2
million more to be served in the next two years.
* The President Has Proposed Establishing Community Health Centers In
Poor Communities. To make health care available where it is needed
most, the Administration has set out to establish a Community Health
Center or rural clinic in every high-poverty county in America that can
support one. The President's FY 2007 budget proposes to establish 80
such centers or clinics in poor counties not currently served.
President Bush Proposed A Comprehensive Agenda To Make Health Care In America
More Affordable, Portable, Transparent, And Efficient. Americans enjoy the
best health care facilities and medical professionals in the world, but our
citizens are concerned about the cost of health care, losing their health
insurance if they change jobs, and a lack of information about price and
quality. The President believes that Americans deserve high-quality,
reasonably priced, reliable health care, and the security of knowing they will
have it when they need it.
The President's Reform Agenda Can Make The Health Care System More
Efficient While Continuing To Lead The World In Cutting Edge Medicine.
Americans should be able to choose their health care based on individual needs
and preferences and easily obtain understandable information about the price
and quality of the care they receive. Insurance should be portable and
affordable. The President proposes to improve health care through initiatives
to provide increased stability and peace of mind for working families across
the country. The President's health care agenda includes:
* Expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
* Making Health Insurance More Portable
* Improving Information On Price And Quality To Make Health Care More
Transparent
* Leveling The Playing Field For Individuals And Small Business Employees
* Passing Medical Liability Reform
* Improving Access To Health Information Technology
* Assisting Vulnerable Americans
Expanding Health Savings Accounts
HSAs Are Making Health Care More Affordable And Accessible. Established
by the Medicare bill signed into law by President Bush in December 2003, HSAs
allow Americans to save tax-free dollars in accounts to pay for their health
care expenses. These accounts are accompanied by high-deductible
comprehensive insurance policies that cover preventive care and larger medical
bills. Since January 2004, more than 3 million Americans have enrolled in
HSAs, which are helping make health insurance more affordable for individuals
and companies while providing greater choices and flexibility in how workers
and employers spend their health care dollars.
The President proposed to build on this success and expand HSAs by:
* Giving Individuals That Purchase HSAs On Their Own The Same Tax
Advantages As Those With Employer-Sponsored Insurance. The President
proposes making premiums for HSA-compatible insurance policies
deductible from income taxes when purchased by individuals outside of
work. In addition, an income tax credit would offset payroll taxes
paid on premiums paid for their HSA policies. This will level the
playing field for those who currently do not have access to employer
health care plans, including the self-employed, unemployed, and workers
for companies that don't offer health insurance. For Americans who are
not working, especially early retirees, premiums for the purchase of
non-group HSA plans would now be allowed tax-free from an HSA account.
* Eliminating All Taxes On Out-Of-Pocket Spending Through HSAs. The
President proposed allowing Americans with HSAs and their employers to
make annual contributions to their accounts to cover all out-of-pocket
costs under their HSA policy, not just their deductible as provided
under current law. This will allow patients to cover all their out-of-
pocket expenses tax-free through their HSA. The new proposal would
also provide a credit for payroll taxes paid on HSA contributions made
by individuals. The President's HSA proposals are projected to
increase the number of Americans with HSAs from the current 14 million
to 21 million by 2010, a 50-percent rise.
Making Health Insurance More Portable
Americans Should Be Able To Take Their Health Insurance With Them When
They Change Jobs, Move, Become Self-Employed, Or Leave The Labor Force.
Americans should not have to worry about changing doctors, learning a new
insurance company bureaucracy, having their premiums go up if a family member
is sick, losing their insurance tax advantage when leaving employment-based
plans, or being subject to more costly mandates. The lack of portability can
lead to "job lock" in which workers are hesitant to leave their job if anyone
in the family is in less-than-perfect health.
* Enabling Portable HSA Insurance Policies. Employers would have the
ability to offer workers a Portable HSA insurance policy that the
employees would own, control, and be able to take wherever they went.
Their premiums would be tax-free and would not increase based on their
health status at the time that they changed jobs, left the labor force,
or moved. Employers could contribute to new employees' Portable HSA
insurance policies -- no matter where the policy was originally
purchased. Employers would have the ability to decide whether or how
much to contribute to these plans, but whatever they contributed would
be tax-free.
* The President Supports Permitting The Purchase Of Health Insurance
Across State Lines. This would allow Americans to buy the best health
insurance, based on their own circumstances, instead of being limited
to only the policies available in their state. Allowing Americans to
purchase health insurance policies issued in other states will provide
much-needed choice and competition, while retaining the consumer
protections of enforcement and licensing states currently provide.
Improving Information On Price And Quality To Make Health Care More
Transparent
Americans Should Be Able To Easily Obtain Understandable Information About
The Price And Quality Of Health Care. The President urges medical providers
and insurance companies to make information about prices and quality readily
available to all Americans prior to the time of service or treatment.
Leveling The Playing Field For Individuals And Small Business Employees
The Administration Will Work To Make It Easier For Small Businesses To
Provide Health Care For Their Employees. Small businesses are at a real
disadvantage in providing health benefits for workers. Because they buy
coverage for only a handful of workers at a time, small businesses pay much
higher costs than large employers or labor unions for similar health benefits.
In part because costs go up over time and one sick worker can cause a large
premium increase, small employers are less than half as likely to offer health
benefits to their workers as large employers.
* The President Calls On Congress To Allow Small Businesses To Form
Association Health Plans (AHPs). AHPs let small businesses join
together to purchase health coverage, giving them the same advantages,
administrative efficiencies, and negotiating clout enjoyed by big
businesses and labor unions. By purchasing coverage for thousands of
employees at a time, association members can pay lower premiums for
better coverage.
Passing Medical Liability Reform
The President Calls On Congress To Make The Medical Liability System
Fairer And More Predictable While Reducing Wasteful Costs. Frivolous lawsuits
and excessive jury awards limit access to health care by driving health care
providers out of many communities and increase costs by forcing doctors to
practice defensive medicine. Because lawsuits are driving many good doctors
out of practice, women in nearly 1,500 American counties are left without a
single OB-GYN. Medical liability reforms would secure an injured patient's
ability to get quicker compensation for economic losses, while reducing
frivolous lawsuits against doctors that raise the cost of health care for all.
The President has proposed proven, common-sense reforms that reserve punitive
damages for egregious cases where they are justified, limit non-economic
damages to reasonable amounts, ensure that old cases cannot be brought to
court years after an event, and provide that defendants pay judgments in
proportion to their fault.
Improving Health Information Technology(IT)
The Administration Is Working To Expand The Use Of Health IT To Lower
Costs, Reduce Medical Errors, And Improve Quality Of Care. In 2004, the
President launched an initiative to make electronic health records available
to most Americans within the next 10 years. We have already seen the Veterans
Health Administration and private-sector health systems use information
technology to increase quality, encourage savings, and reduce errors. With
electronic health records, information needed to treat patients effectively
will be a computer click away, no matter where the patient is receiving care.
The Administration has taken steps towards improving health IT, including:
establishing the position of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology and providing $100 million to fund projects harmonizing standards
for electronic information exchange; developing certification criteria to
ensure health IT investments meet proper standards; addressing privacy and
security issues; and developing models for a national Internet-based health
information system. Through the American Health Information Community (AHIC),
the Administration and the private sector are building a common framework for
implementing a nationwide electronic health records system.
* In 2006, The Administration Will Work To Develop Nationwide Health IT
Standards To Accelerate Patient Access To Electronic Health Records.
This includes a "medical clipboard" that can only be accessed with the
patient's consent, electronic medication history and lab results, and
ways to utilize health information tools to monitor potential disease
outbreaks such as pandemic influenza.
Assistance For Vulnerable Americans
The President Proposes Extending The Benefits Of HSAs To Low-Income
Families And Individuals Through Refundable Tax Credits. A family of four
making $25,000 or less will be able to get a refundable tax credit of $3,000
from the Federal government to help buy an HSA-compatible policy that covers
them for major medical expenses. These families will have the flexibility to
put up to $1,000 of the money directly into an HSA to pay for routine medical
expenses. What the family does not spend can be saved in the account and
carried over to the next year, earning interest tax-free.
The President Proposes Providing $500 Million Per Year To Encourage States
To Test Innovative Methods For Covering Chronically Ill Residents. Americans
who are chronically ill and are not part of an employer or public pool must
pay the full burden of their care through high premiums or, in some cases, go
without insurance at all. Some states have established high-risk pools to
insure chronically ill patients otherwise denied coverage, but there are also
other innovative approaches that could provide better coverage at lower costs.
The President proposes grants, awarded by the HHS Secretary, that would help
cover chronically ill patients by helping up to 10 states build on their
existing high-risk pools or test other innovative approaches such as risk-
adjusted subsidies or plans designed to manage chronic illnesses such as
diabetes.
The President Supports Allowing Employers To Make Higher Contributions To
The HSAs Of Chronically Ill Employees. Under current law, employers must
contribute the same amount to each employee's HSA. This prevents employers
from providing extra help to their chronically ill employees -- employees who
are more likely to use their HSAs to pay for their higher-than-average
out-of-pocket expenses. Permitting employers to make higher contributions to
HSAs of chronically ill employees will help those workers fund their HSAs and
pay their out-of-pocket expenses tax-free through their accounts.
The President Proposes Expanding AHPs To Allow Civic, Community, And
Religious Groups To Purchase Health Coverage For Their Members. This gives
individuals and their families, including the most vulnerable Americans, the
ability to pool together to buy health insurance outside of their workplace.
Giving people more choices to buy insurance at group rates from organizations
they already know and trust will help many Americans purchase quality,
affordable, and portable health insurance.
The President Supports Increased Funding For Community Health Centers. It
is vital to get care to poor communities, where access is often hardest to
come by, and basic primary and preventative services could do an enormous
amount to raise living standards and well being. The President has worked to
expand the number and reach of Community Health Centers. In 2001, there were
3,317 sites serving some 10.3 million patients. The Administration has funded
more than 800 new or expanded centers and will fund approximately 400 more in
the next two years. This has allowed Community Health Centers to build the
capacity to serve more than 3.5 million additional Americans, with nearly 2
million more to be served in the next two years.
* The President Has Proposed Establishing Community Health Centers In
Poor Communities. To make health care available where it is needed
most, the Administration has set out to establish a Community Health
Center or rural clinic in every high-poverty county in America that can
support one. The President's FY 2007 budget proposes to establish 80
such centers or clinics in poor counties not currently served.
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