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NEWS RELEASE Bush’s Prescription for Health-Care
Crisis: Tonight, during his State of the Union Address, Bush will argue that government should let consumers fix the problem. His twofold Rx for the nation’s health-care woes: 1) Save your nickels and dimes in case you get sick and 2) Punish severely injured patients who sue for medical malpractice. “American consumers and businesses are in dire straits and President Bush’s message to all of us is, basically, ‘Suck it up!’” said Paul Lyon, Executive Director of The Committee for Justice for All. “Rather than ride herd over the powerful insurance companies, HMOs and pharmaceutical giants that have bankrolled the president and his political allies, he wants to put the burden of fixing the nation’s health-care crisis back onto the already sagging shoulders of hard-working Americans.” Consider the following facts: · Over the past five years, health insurance premiums for workers have grown by 73 percent while wages have grown by only 15 percent. · Rising insurance premiums have left nearly 46 million Americans uninsured. Under Bush's watch, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased by 6.2 million. Unless the nation drastically changes course, approximately 52 million Americans are expected to be uninsured in 2010. ·
The number of uninsured Americans now exceeds the combined
population of 24 states, plus the · Meanwhile, the nation's HMOs reported a $6.98 billion profit for the first six months of 2005, representing a 21 percent increase over the $5.76 billion earned during the same period in 2004, according to Weiss Ratings, Inc., the nation's leading independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services companies, mutual funds and stocks. ·
The · America spends 2.5 times more per capita than the average of other wealthy nations on health care − nations that provide health care to all citizens − yet America still ranks 34th in life expectancy, 41st in infant mortality, and 37th in overall health system performance. · Nearly half of all small businesses no longer provide health coverage for their workers. · Employee contributions for health care have increased 126 percent over the last five years, compared to a 76 percent increase for employers. · Medical bills account for half of all personal bankruptcies. ·
Malpractice lawsuits, which Bush and Republican leaders
like Sen. Rick Santorum like to blame for rising health-care costs,
account for less than 2 percent of the nation’s health-care spending,
according to the Congressional Budget Office. Preventable medical
errors, meanwhile, kill 44,000 to 198,000 hospital patients a year in ·
Preventable medical errors add $500 billion annually to
health-care costs – 30 percent of all costs. According to Forbes
Magazine “Shoddy quality control plagues American medicine, killing at
least a hundred thousand people every year and running up an estimated
$500 billion a year in avoidable medical costs, or 30% of all health
care spending.” “President Bush likes to blame suit-happy
Americans for driving up health-care costs, but that dog won’t
hunt,” said If Republican leaders are serious about solving the
health-care crisis, “If al-Qaida were killing a few hundred Americans
a day, President Bush would be dropping bombs on somebody,” The health-savings accounts proposed by the Bush
administration, said “President Bush assumes that families working two or three Wal Mart jobs trying to make ends meet have all kinds of money left over at the end of the month to sock away in case they get sick,” said Lyon. “This proposal, like so many others of this administration, shows how tragically out of touch the president is with the reality of most Americans.” There are numerous reasons why “consumer-driven” health-care is bad for Americans. Here are a few provided by the Center for American Progress: · Denies people the health care choices they really want: People want the choice of affordable access to their doctors and the needed care their doctors recommend – not the choices in consumer-driven health care: o Satisfaction is lower in consumer-driven health plans: Only 33 to 42 percent of people in consumer-driven health plans were extremely or very satisfied with their health plans, compared to 63% of those with traditional plans [EBRI 2005]. Two-thirds of people prefer an employer-selected set of plans over an employer-funded account and choosing insurance on their own [Lambrew 2005]. o Medicare drug benefit is a case in point: The President insisted on the principles of consumer-directed health care in the design of the Medicare drug benefit – in particular, significant cost-sharing and broad choice of plans. Yet, early experience has shown that “choice” means confusion, unreliable information and continued high prices as seniors struggle to find plans that meet their needs. ·
Discourages
preventive and cost-effective care: Arbitrary high deductibles and
cost sharing cause a reduction in use of care whether it is needed or
not [ o
Does
nothing to address real costs in the system: About 70% of costs
in the · Assumes people use health care like they buy commodities: The theory ignores two facts about health care: o
Doctors
more than patients determine health care use: Most tests, drugs
and service use result from the recommendations of health professionals,
not the desires of consumers. In fact, we encourage patients to follow
doctors’ advice. High deductibles will not change the higher use that
results from a higher supply in some areas [ o Stakes of forgoing health care are high: Health care is ultimately about preserving life and delaying death, which makes people think differently about it [Cutler 2004]. For example, most parents of sick children do not shop for or negotiate prices. People with cancer are unlikely to decline a new and expensive test or treatment. · Does more harm than good: Consumer-driven health plans shift costs from the healthy to the sick, undermine group health insurance, and allow prices to rise unchecked. o Access problems are higher in consumer-driven health plans: One survey found that, while people in such plans were more cost-conscious, they were twice as likely to report delaying or avoiding care and about three times as likely to report paying a large fraction of their income on health costs as those in comprehensive insurance [EBRI 2005]. o Consumer-driven health care undermines group purchasing power: Enrollees in consumer-driven health plans appear to be significantly healthier than others [HSR August 2004]. As sicker workers stay in traditional plans, the cost of such plans will go up, causing such plans to become unaffordable for workers and employers [Burman & Gruber 2005]. This erodes group purchasing power, leading to even higher prices – and possibly more uninsured Americans. It could also undermine Medicare as it expands there. “President Bush’s proposals for fixing our
nation’s health-care ills amount to a snake-oil remedy that panders to
his political base and does nothing to help hard-working Americans
afford their monthly premiums and get quality care,” said Lyon.
“What we need is aggressive measures that reduce medical errors and go
after the greedy insurance companies who have been lining their pockets
at the expense of sick people.” CJA is a nonprofit ### |