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

[Guest guest]

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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" The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. " --

Plato

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon