Senator Edward M. Kennedy Remarks On The State Of Health Care.

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On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 22:33:49 -0700 (PDT) DitziSis <mk2967

writes:

SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY REMARKS ON THE STATE OF HEALTH CARE

September 23, 2004

 

 

 

 

For Immediate Release

Contact: David Smith / Jim Manley

(202) 224-2633

 

 

Few if any issues are more important to American families than health

care-and in few areas has this Administration failed more dismally. Its

record is marked by inattention, incompetence, and outright deception.

And because its record is so weak, its campaign strategy is based on

false attacks on John Kerry's plan.

 

The Administration's failures have been especially damaging for senior

citizens and Medicare. Today's seniors built our country. They stood by

it through World War II and the Cold War, through good economic times and

bad. Medicare is a commitment to stand by them, to guarantee the

affordable health care they need in their retirement.

 

As George Bush said in his acceptance speech to the Republican convention

on September 2, " we have a moral responsibility to honor America's

seniors. " He's right about that-but senior citizens know that on

Medicare, George Bush may say the right words, but he constantly does the

wrong things.

 

The Medicare crisis gets worse every day for our seniors. The

Administration's Medicare bill was passed by Congress, but only after the

Administration concealed its true cost-and broke the law in the process.

Now they are at it again. As the Washington Post reported last Sunday,

the Administration concealed internal estimates showing that the cost of

the bill is even higher--$42 billion higher-than they admitted in

January.

 

Last week we learned that the Administration has suppressed estimates

showing that Medicare cost sharing and premiums will eat up more than 40%

of the total Social Security benefit of the typical 85 year old. Three

weeks ago, the Bush Administration announced the highest premium increase

in Medicare's entire history.

 

That's the Bush doubletalk in action. Pledge to honor our senior citizens

on September 2, impose the highest Medicare premium increase in history

on September 3, hide the truth about the erosion of Medicare on September

14, and suppress yet another estimate of the cost of the Medicare bill on

September 19. And that's just in the last three weeks. If George Bush

gets four more years, senior citizens will fare even worse.

 

The basic problem with George Bush on Medicare is that he puts the

interests of drug companies and HMOs first and the needs of senior

citizens last. The Medicare bill forces 15 million senior citizens to pay

more for their prescription drugs than they do today. It causes 3 million

retirees to lose their good retirement coverage. It forces 6 million of

the poorest of the poor-the elderly and disabled under Medicaid-to pay

more out of pocket for their prescription drugs. It requires 6 million

senior citizens to pay more in premiums than they will get back in

benefits. Its high deductibles, high premiums and huge coverage gaps

leave large numbers of senior citizens unable to pay their drug bills.

 

The Administration's Medicare bill also prohibits safe drug imports from

Canada, so that drug companies can continue to gouge Americans, while

citizens of Canada are able to buy the same drugs at half the price. The

bill prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug discounts so that senior

citizens can get fairer prices. The bill gives drug companies $139

billion in windfall profits. It gives HMO's $46 billion in unfair

subsidies, instead of using those funds for a decent drug benefit or to

keep premiums at affordable levels.

 

Every major company and every major health plan in America negotiates

prices for drugs. The Veterans Administration does it to see that

veterans pay fair prices for the drugs they take. But when it comes to

using the negotiating power of Medicare, the Bush Medicare bill says,

" Oh, no-not for senior citizens. "

 

George Bush must think the CEOs of the drug companies need senior

citizens' money more than senior citizens do. Senior citizens are living

on fixed incomes-and his Medicare bill is a fix to give away millions to

drug industry CEOs.

 

Not only does the Bush Medicare bill block imports of drugs at fair

prices, the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress won't even

allow a vote on bipartisan legislation to give senior citizens and all

other Americans safe access to affordable imported drugs. President Bush

said in Muskegon, Michigan, two weeks ago that he opposed drug imports

because he wants to make sure the drugs were safe. Our GOP Senate

Majority Leader says he won't allow a vote on the issue in the Senate,

because he wants to protect Americans from unsafe drugs.

 

The safe drug argument is a sham. Our bipartisan bill guarantees safety.

The only drugs that can be imported are drugs approved by the FDA and

manufactured in FDA approved plants. The fact is that George Bush and the

Republican leadership won't allow a Senate debate because they're afraid

to defend their position before the full Senate, afraid of the

accountability that a Senate vote gives the American people. The real

safety issue for George Bush is the safety of the profits of the big drug

companies, not the safety of American patients.

 

According to another revelation in the very last paragraph of last

Sunday's Washington Post article, of all the money that the Bush Medicare

drug bill lavishes on HMOs, only about 5% goes for increased benefits to

patients. The rest goes for HMO profits and excess costs.

 

This Administration has been touting all the wonderful extra benefits for

senior citizens who give up their regular Medicare and join a Medicare

HMO. That's no justification for the $1,000 in overpayments that the

Medicare trust fund gives to HMOs. If those extra benefits are needed,

they should be available to every senior citizen-not just those who join

an HMO. But it turns out that the vast majority of that

overpayment-according to the Bush Administration's own estimate-doesn't

benefit senior citizens at all. It benefits HMO profits.

 

For this President, when he says " honor senior citizens, " he really means

honor big drug companies and big HMOs.

 

President Bush also said this month that health care needs to be

modernized to " reflect the world in which we live. " In the world he lives

in, it's OK for drug companies to make billions, while seniors have to

choose between the pills they need and putting food on the table. In the

world President Bush lives in, the Medicare seniors know and trust will

be turned over to the tender mercies of HMOs. In the world he lives in,

he abandons the guarantee of Social Security and risk savings by seniors

on the whims of the stock market. But that's not the world senior

citizens live in-and it's not the way to honor senior citizens.

 

The health care record of the Administration isn't just a failure for

senior citizens. It's a failure for every American family.

 

Health care costs are out of control. Annual spending on health care has

increased from $1.3 trillion when the Administration took office to $1.8

trillion today. That's an increase of half a trillion dollars in just

four years.

 

American families are being pushed to the wall by those cost increases.

Health insurance premiums have increased 59% in the past four years. The

cost of insurance for a family has increased by almost $3,000. This year,

premiums for family insurance will climb to $10,000.

 

Drug costs are out of control. According to the most current data, they

increased 52% in the first three years of the Administration. The

President not only hasn't done anything to cut drug costs, he opposes any

steps that would do something. He won't support anything that threatens

the swollen profits of his friends in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

The crisis of the uninsured is also out of control. Under this

Administration, the number of the uninsured has soared by more than a

million a year, to 45 million Americans today. Last year, one in three

Americans-82 million-were without coverage for an extended period. No

American family is more than one pink slip or one employer decision to

drop coverage away from being uninsured.

 

Whether the issue is health costs, or the number of uninsured, or

Medicare, President Bush knows he can't run in his record. Instead, he

tries to divert attention from what he's done by invoking the same tired

old charges that the right wing always trots out against progressive

health care solutions-the same charges they made against Medicare. In

1964 and 1965, when the Medicare debate was at its height, Republicans

said Medicare was " socialized medicine. " They called it a " crackpot

scheme. " They said it was a " government invasion " of health care.

 

Fast forward forty years. Here's President Bush on John Kerry's plan: " A

government takeover of health care. " It's a new century but it's the same

old GOP line.

 

The Kerry plan will give all Americans the same access to the same

affordable, private health coverage that is available to every member of

Congress and the President, too. Is that a government take-over of health

care-or is it just plain fair?

 

The Kerry plan provides tax credits to help small employers pay for

private health insurance for their employees. Is that a government

take-over-or is that just common-sense?

 

The Kerry plan authorizes people 50 to 64 with serious health problems

and no access to affordable insurance to buy into Medicare. Is that a

government take-over-or is that just compassion for people in need?

 

The Kerry plan helps unemployed workers pay the cost of extending their

private, on-the-job insurance coverage they're laid off. Government

takeover? Let's get serious.

 

The Kerry plan expands Medicaid and CHIP for low income adults and

children so that people whose employer doesn't provide health insurance

and who can't afford it on their own can get the coverage they need. Is

health insurance for every American child a government take-over-or is it

just the right thing to do? "

 

The Kerry plan reduces private health premiums for everyone by 10%, by

helping private insurance pay for the most costly illnesses. Is that a

government takeover-or is that a creative idea to deal with the explosion

in costs?

 

The Kerry plan cuts health care costs by reducing sky-high administrative

costs and paperwork, and by helping doctors and hospitals provide better

quality care. Is that a government take-over-or just following the advice

of the best medical experts?

 

The bottom line is that the Kerry plan will provide quality health

insurance for two-thirds of the uninsured-27 million people. It will

lower costs for every American. It will improve quality. It's a good

idea.

 

George Bush knows he can't win the argument if he talks about John

Kerry's actual proposals, so he resorts to attacks that deceive and

frighten. The Bush record: failure. The Bush response: fear and smear.

 

President Bush knows he can't run on his record, so he's offering the old

right-wing proposals dressed up in shiny new clothes. They're proposals

he's had four years to enact, and couldn't, because too many Republicans

appose them too. They're proposals that won't help working families, even

if they're enacted. They're nothing more than thinly disguised giveaways

to special interests.

 

It offers refundable tax credits for the uninsured, but the priority it

places on these credits is so low that it funds them only if

unidentified, offsetting cuts are made in programs like Medicare and

Medicaid. The credits are too small to do any good anyway, even if

they're funded.

 

They propose Association Health Plans, but that program has little to do

with expanding insurance coverage for small businesses and everything to

do with giveaways to Republican trade associations. The Congressional

Budget Office says the proposal will actually raise premiums for 20

million Americans working for small businesses.

 

The Bush plan proposes new tax breaks for the wealthy by squandering even

more scarce federal funds on Health Savings Accounts. Those accounts will

cost taxpayers $41 billion over the next 10 years-and they will raise

premiums 60% or more for people who need conventional insurance. Health

Savings Accounts say to American families: You don't pay enough for

health care. You're wasteful. You should spend $3,000 out of your own

savings before health insurance helps you pay your costs. That's

Alice-in-Wonderland logic-and hard-pressed American families won't buy

it.

 

The President also touts caps on malpractice insurance premiums as an

answer to rising health care costs. John Kerry has tort reform proposals

to help doctors faced with excessive premiums. But the idea that capping

medical malpractice awards will solve the health care crisis can't pass

the laugh test. Malpractice premiums account for less than 2% of health

care costs, and the Congressional Budget Office says that capping awards

will produce minimal savings.

 

A million and a half low income Americans-500,000 of them children-have

already lost health insurance coverage under Medicaid and CHIP because

states struggling with budget shortfalls created by the Bush recession

have cut back on the program. But instead of offering relief to states,

the Bush budget proposed another $24 billion in Medicaid cuts. You don't

hear the President talking about that.

 

The President said in his acceptance speech that " America's children must

also have a healthy start in life. " He then had the gall to say that in

his next term " We will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of

poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's

health insurance programs. " I have news for the President. There are $1

billion in CHIP funds that are now available to provide health insurance

for children, but that will revert to the Treasury at the end of this

week. If that happens, 200,000 low and moderate income children will lose

their coverage. A bipartisan bill is now pending to restore those funds,

as we have done in the past. But it's not even in the President's budget.

Who in the world does George Bush think he is fooling?

 

To control health costs, the Bush Administration would have to take on

its big contributors in the insurance industry and pharmaceutical

industry. It won't do that-so it has nothing to offer. To help Americans

afford health insurance, the President would have to put higher priority

on health care for working families than on tax breaks for the wealthy.

He won't do that-so he has nothing to offer.

 

President Bush doesn't understand that American families are tired of

just talk. They want action. He's done nothing for four years to help,

and now he wants another chance. He doesn't deserve it. John Kerry offers

real solutions, not excuses and empty promises. It's time for a change.

 

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