Healthcare

Aside from the defeat of fascism, World War II left us with two lasting innovations in the civilian sphere: the jeep and employer-provided health coverage. At the time, businesses couldn’t raise wages due to government-enforced wartime salary caps. Health coverage was offered as a means of attracting potential job applicants.

Since then, we have gradually convinced ourselves that an anomaly should be the norm, and politicians have discovered the political benefits of promising to make it so. What was once seen as a fringe benefit is now cast as an employment right. And in California, Maine, and many states in between, lawmakers are trying to sell the idea as at least part of a solution to what is perceived as the crisis of healthcare today.

The worst thing about employer mandates is that they confuse rhetoric with practice. While it is useful to pretend that employers somehow represent a unique class of citizens, the truth is that they are as locked into the state economy as anyone else. The costs that they must bear are at best one degree removed from that which will be borne by all the state’s residents once employers are forced to raise prices, reduce employees' hours or even cut jobs altogether. Read more...

Over the past decade the percentage of low-income American children who are uninsured has dropped by one-third, thanks in large part to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which Congress created in 1997.  And SCHIP, along with its sister program Medicaid, has accomplished this at reasonable cost:  these programs cost less per beneficiary than private insurance, on average.

In his new budget, President Bush proposes to reauthorize SCHIP, which is scheduled to expire this year.  But he fails to give states enough funds simply to maintain their current enrollment — let alone to expand coverage to the millions of low-income children who still lack it.

Under the President’s budget, states would have $7 billion less in federal SCHIP funding over the next five years than they need just to continue insuring as many beneficiaries as they do now.  By 2012, some 46 states would face a total shortfall of $2.9 billion.  That’s equivalent to the cost of covering 1.4 million children. Read more...

Biologics treat some of the most devastating diseases around and no one should be denied access to them if they’re too expensive. Generic biologics can be a safe and affordable alternative to high-priced brand name biologics.

Our legislation will allow all Americans to take advantage of these drugs by enabling competition in the market to lower the price and ending permanent monopolies over biologic products. It is high time for these vital treatments to become more affordable and our legislation is just what the doctor ordered.

In 2005, a Community Health Center from Fremont, Ohio gathered $20,000 worth of supplies and volunteer doctors and prepared to travel to Biloxi, Mississippi to aid victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  When these doctors are practicing in Ohio, they receive federal liability coverage to serve low-income and needy populations.  So, you can imagine their surprise to learn that, in a federal disaster, they received no liability coverage to aid the Hurricane victims.

My office contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and liability coverage was extended to our Health Center in September and the doctors traveled to Biloxi.  Unfortunately, when the doctors attempted to return to Mississippi in January of last year, they were again denied coverage.  After the incidents with Fremont's Community Health Services, it has become clear to me that Congress needs to provide additional authority to HHS so people in disaster areas receive the aid they need at the time they need it. Read more...

Today, February 7th, we commemorate the 7th National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a day when we urge African Americans and all Americans to "Get Educated, Get Involved, and Get Tested."

On Monday, The House of Representatives voted 396-0 to approve the resolution I introduced to support the goals and ideals of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. This is an important step, because I believe we must do everything in our power to raise the profile of this issue, and help stop the devastating toll this disease is taking on the African American community.

The numbers are startling.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, African Americans accounted for almost half of all new HIV infections in 2005.

According to the CDC, in 2005 African American women accounted for 66 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases among women, and were 25 times more likely to be infected than white women. Read more...

The SCHIP program [State Children's Health Insurance Program] has been very successful.  I look forward to working with Senator Baucus to improve the program so it covers as many children and gets as much bang for the buck as possible.

The President’s Health Care Tax Deduction initiative proposed during the State of the Union was designed to produce two main results: (1) limit the economic distortions currently present in the tax code with respect to health care, and (2) reduce the number of uninsured in America.

How Does It Work?

The President is seeking to accomplish these two goals by eliminating the exclusion of employer-provided health insurance from income and replace it with a standard tax deduction – $15,000 for family and $7,500 for individual – available to anyone who has health insurance, regardless of the price.

Such a change in the tax code would largely accomplish the first goal. However, introducing a deduction in the income tax system alone would not affect a large fraction of the uninsured who already pay no federal income taxes. Therefore, the President was forced to look at what federal taxes those uninsured actually pay if he wanted to lure them to purchase health insurance from his plan. Read more...

Business Roundtable recently joined in a partnership with AARP and SEIU called Divided We Fail that is focused on raising health care reform and long-term financial security to the forefront of the political debate. We've been dubbed "strange bedfellows" by many onlookers, and admittedly we've been on opposite sides of issues in the past, but Divided We Fail is not about our differences, it's about fostering a new environment in our nation's capital, an environment for change.

Staggering health care costs are sapping American businesses, putting them at a significant competitive disadvantage and slowing economic growth. For the fourth consecutive year, the 160 CEOs of Business Roundtable cite health care as their number one cost pressure. Health care costs don't just strain businesses; they also place an enormous burden on American households. Too many American families are unable to afford health care coverage.

Health care reform and retirement security are two of the most pressing domestic issues of our time, issues that are bigger than any one organization or coalition or political party, issues that must be approached with new fervor and a renewed dedication in Washington. We call upon our political leaders to reach across the aisle and develop common sense, centrist solutions.

We are not calling for a Democratic plan or a Republican plan, a business plan or a labor plan – rather for an American plan, one that will give all Americans peace of mind about their health care and long-term financial security.

During the congressional elections last November, the American people spoke loud and clear. They demanded a dramatic change at home and abroad, especially with the war in Iraq.

I disagree with the President's plan to surge the number of American forces in Iraq, and it is clear that his open-ended policies and his nation-building efforts have failed. The chaos and instability in Iraq requires a political solution, not a military solution. Staying in Iraq is not an option politically, militarily or fiscally. The American people understand this.

Here at home we need to see the specific details of what the President is suggesting. It's not enough to make broad proposals; we need details of how we can get to where the President wants to take us. Although during last year's speech, he claimed that America is "addicted to oil," he still has no viable solution to the energy crisis or how he plans to attain energy independence. Read more...

H.R. 4 would provide that the government "negotiates" prices for Medicare beneficiaries in prescription drug plans. As we see it, this would involve at least setting a ceiling price on what prescription drug plans are permitted to pay for life-saving drugs.

We see a fundamental problem in the future of Medicare. As everyone is aware, the demographics in the near future will mean far less money coming into Medicare than goes out. This will require one of three basic alternatives:

First, massive tax increases which are politically improbable,

Second, less money per beneficiary when adjusted for healthcare inflation, which will necessarily mean rationing,

Third, allowing older Americans who choose to do so to add their own money on top of the government payment in order to get healthcare plans less likely to ration. Read more...