Lauren L's List: Healthcare

• Medicare Reforms Will Benefit Older Americans

• This nation's health care is great. We've got the best health care in the  world, and we need to keep it that way. We've got a great health care system  because of our docs: well-trained, decent, caring  people who practice medicine. We've got a great health care system  because of our nurses, who work hard to provide compassionate care. We got the best research in the world. We're on  the leading edge of change in America.
• And we got to keep the system vibrant and we must keep it the best in the world,
• And low-income seniors will receive up to $600 a year to help them with their  drug costs, in addition to the card. Their card will serve as a transition to  the reforms that are inherent in the Medicare legislation. When the full drug  benefit arrives in 2006, all seniors will be eligible for prescription drug  coverage for a monthly premium of about $35. The result is that for most seniors  without coverage today the Medicare drug plan will cut their annual drug bills  roughly in half. That's positive news for America's seniors....

• Seniors with the highest drug bills will save the most. Seniors with the  greatest need will get the most help. Low-income seniors will pay a reduced  premium or no premium at all and lower or no co-payments for their medications.  

• Under the new reforms, seniors, as I mentioned, will have choices. You see,  some seniors don't want to choose and I can understand that. In other words,  people [who] are on Medicare, just don't want to be confronted with a choice.  

• There are other important reforms in this bill. When seniors sign up for  Medicare, they will get a complete health  examination so that doctors can know their health  needs from the start. We're finally beginning to focus on preventative care. Makes sense to include preventative care in any health care reforms. The health  care providers here know that better than  anybody. The bill provides incentives for companies to keep the existing  coverage they provide for senior retirees.

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• American employers, who are forced to cut back on providing coverage and  benefits or suffer a competitive disadvantage against international companies  who don't bear health costs

• Since 1994, the cost per person of American health care has more  than doubled, with an annual growth rate regularly more than twice that of  inflation. Fueled by rising costs of prescription drugs, inefficient outpatient  care, expensive and unnecessary medical  procedures, and ballooning insurance premiums, these costs are a burden on state  and federal governments, businesses, and families.

   

  Per-person health care expenditures in the United States have risen 6.5  percent per year since 2000, and 5.5 percent per year on average since 1994. In  contrast, consumer inflation has averaged just 2.6 percent per year.

• The share of American firms offering health  benefits shrank to 60 percent today [in 2009], from 66 percent in 1999. And the  percentage of Americans covered through their employers, where coverage is of a  much higher quality than in the individual market, was 59 percent in 2007, down  from 64 percent in 1999. Without workplace health  insurance, Americans must struggle to find coverage in the unregulated private  market (where people with pre-existing conditions find it difficult or  impossible to secure coverage), go on public assistance, or become uninsured.  
• These costs are increasingly painful for American families, who face higher  premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics  consumer expenditure data, the share of household income spent on medical  expenses has crept up since 1994. A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund found  that, "accelerated growth in health care spending has translated into increased burdens on  family budgets." According to the most recent data, an average of 13 million  families (11 percent of American families) spent 10 percent or more on  out-of-pocket health care expenses in 2000-01. That's up from 8 percent in  1996-97.
• American spending on health care is wildly out of sync with other large developed  economies. A recent McKinsey study found that the United States spent $650  billion more on health care than peer OECD countries even after adjusting for  wealth
• espite surging expenditures, the number of Americans going without insurance has  risen to 46 million, or 15 percent of the population in 2007, up from 38  million, or 14 percent, in 1999. Among people aged 18-65, the uninsurance rate  increased to almost 20 percent in 2007, up from 17 percent in 1999. If the 1999  rate had stayed constant, 4.5 million more American adults would have health insurance today.

  • *despite

• In 36 states, the percentage of adults aged 18-65 going without health insurance has increased since 1999. Millions  more are living with subpar or insufficient coverage. The Commonwealth Fund  found that in 2007 there were "an estimated 25 million underinsured adults in  the United States, up 60 percent from 2003." Underinsured adults "have health coverage that does not adequately protect them  from high medical expenses," and they regularly go without needed care, leading to higher medical costs down the road.  
• The uninsured typically get care in the most  expensive way: through hospitals and last-minute emergency care. These additional costs drive up premiums for  those with health insurance. A 2005 Families USA  study found that, by 2010, $1,500 of the cost of a family insurance premium will  be due to costs associated with uncompensated care for the uninsured.

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• Universal Health Care: Unbiblical Socialism
• The prospect of government-funded universal health care ... is  another example of America's departure from its strong Judeo-Christian roots and  its love affair with socialism."

• Single-payer basically means Medicare for everyone, without the copays and  deductibles of the current Medicare system. It is not socialized medicine, as in  England or Spain, where doctors and hospitals work for the government. It does  not violate the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, which bars the government  from taking private property for public use without appropriate compensation,  since it does not nationalize any private firms. The single-payer plan is a  system of socialized health insurance similar to  that of Canada, Australia and most European nations. Essentially it is an  extension and improvement of the Medicare system, in which government pays for  care that is managed and delivered in the private  sector.
• When wealthy and middle-class people have to rely on the same health system as the poor, as they do throughout  Europe, they use their political power to make sure it's a decent system.
• This reform would save only 15 percent of the  $350 billion insurance overhead costs that converting to single-payer would  achieve.

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• Forty-six million of our friends, family and neighbors have no health care coverage at  all. The Institute of Medicine estimates that over 18,000 Americans die each  year from lack of health insurance alone. Tens of  millions more risk bankruptcy because they have bare-bones insurance. Our  troubled economy will only worsen this sad situation.
• America wastes about 30 percent of our $2 trillion health care dollars on  administration. Reducing administrative waste could save $300 billion each year,  enough to cover all the uninsured and provide better coverage for the rest of us  with complete choice of doctor and hospital.

• The typical price of family coverage now runs about $13,000 a year, but premiums  are expected to nearly double, to $24,000, by 2020, according to the  Commonwealth Fund.
• The Urban Institute, for example, predicts  that the number of uninsured individuals will increase from about 49 million  today to between 57 million and 66 million by 2019. The Democrats’ plan is  expected to cover as many as 30 million individuals who now are uninsured.
• 275,000 people will die prematurely over the next 10 years because they do not  have insurance

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