Bush Proposes Expansion of Health Insurance, but Aims at Medicare in New Budget

WASHINGTON–In his State of the Union address on Tuesday,
President Bush proposed a plan to help cover the nation’s uninsured
that includes changes to the tax code and federal assistance to
states.

“When it comes to health care, government has an obligation to
care for the elderly, the disabled and poor children,” Bush said.
“And we will meet those responsibilities. For all other Americans,
private health insurance is the best way to meet their needs.”

In his address, Bush proposed the following health care-related
measures:

• a standard tax deduction for health insurance like the standard
  deduction for dependents;
• “Affordable Choices” grants, created from existing federal
  funds, for states to make basic private health insurance available
  to all their citizens;
• expanding the Health Savings Accounts program and helping small
  businesses via association health plans;
• reducing costs and medical errors with better health
  information technology;
• encouraging price transparency; and
• passing medical liability reform to protect doctors from “junk
  lawsuits.”

But while proposing expansion of health coverage, the Wall
Street Journal reported Friday that the president’s new
budget, to be released Feb. 5, contains proposals aimed at slowing
growth of the government’s Medicare program, viewed as a major
element in his plan to balance the federal budget by 2012.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told the newspaper in an
interview that curtailing Medicare growth complements Bush’s plans
to change tax laws on employer-provided health insurance and to
encourage Americans to choose cheaper health plans. Paulson would
not discuss the details, but unnamed sources said the proposals
could generate $90 billion in Medicare savings, which would come
mainly from health care providers with some beneficiaries also
affected.

“When the budget goes up, you will see a number of changes
relating to Medicare which are aimed at slowing the growth of these
liabilities, slowing the trajectory,” Paulson told the
Journal.

In his address, Bush said failure to put Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security on solid financial footing “will one day leave our
children with three bad options: huge tax increases, huge deficits,
or huge and immediate cuts in benefits.”

Shortly before Bush’s speech, the American Association for
Homecare issued a press release noting that home care providers
have been working to inform lawmakers in Washington of research
that shows home care’s cost-effectiveness, and said such research
is “important for legislators to keep in mind as they will be
looking for programs to cut, and home care has already been
subjected to repeated cuts in recent years.”