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Bush promotes 'empowering' health-care plan
By WILLIAM DOUGLAS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - With health care looming as a marquee issue in November, President Bush touted his health-care proposal Tuesday and took veiled shots at Democratic presidential rival John Kerry's plan, dismissing it as old Washington thinking.
"The debate is whether or not the marketplace ought to have a function in determining the cost of health care, or whether or not the federal government ought to make all the decisions," Bush said during a conversation on health care hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "I've made my stand. I believe that the best health-care policy is one that empowers consumers, and one that understands the market."
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, had framed the debate differently Sunday in a town-hall meeting on health care in Bethlehem, Pa.
"Americans are staggering under the growing burden of health-care costs that are out of control, and the fact is George Bush hasn't lifted a finger to do anything about it. So I will use the money Bush spends on tax cuts for the wealthy to make health care more affordable for the middle class."
Of all the differences between Bush and Kerry, health care offers one of the most dramatic contrasts.
The president proposes to offer refundable tax credits to allow low-income Americans to buy health insurance; to form Associate Health Plans that would let small businesses band together to get the best insurance rates for their employees; and to limit medical-malpractice awards. His proposals wouldn't reach many of the 43 million Americans without health insurance, and wouldn't cost the Treasury very much.
Kerry's plan would provide health care-related tax credits to small businesses; have Washington pick up 75 percent of health-insurance cases over $50,000 to reduce costs for businesses and their workers; extend Medicaid coverage to low-income children and their parents; shift responsibility for those costs to Washington and away from cash-strapped state governments; and let workers buy into federal employees' health-coverage programs.
"The proposals are so (vastly) different," said Kenneth Thorpe, a former Clinton administration health-care official who's analyzed the proposals for Emory University. "It's a big difference in how much federal money is going to be used to subsidize health insurance for poor families."
Kerry's plan would cost $895 billion over 10 years, according to Thorpe's analysis, and would cover about 26.7 million uninsured Americans. Bush's proposal would cost $60 billion over 10 years and have an impact on 2 million to 3 million Americans, Thorpe estimates. White House officials say the president's proposals would cost more than $100 billion over 10 years
Bush campaign officials have used Thorpe's analysis in television ads claiming that Kerry would raise federal taxes by $900 billion within 100 days of taking office, a charge that the senator denies. But Kerry hasn't said how he'd pay for his plan. He advocates repealing Bush's tax cuts for Americans who earn more than $200,000 a year, but that would provide only about $300 billion over a decade.
The president contended Tuesday that he solved some of the most vexing health-care issues by getting the Medicare prescription-drug plan through Congress last year.
"I thought we had an obligation to our seniors, as did members of the United States Congress, to provide a modern system, a reformed system - a system, frankly, that hadn't been changed much since Lyndon Johnson first introduced Medicare," he said.
Bush promotes 'empowering' health-care plan
By WILLIAM DOUGLAS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - With health care looming as a marquee issue in November, President Bush touted his health-care proposal Tuesday and took veiled shots at Democratic presidential rival John Kerry's plan, dismissing it as old Washington thinking.
"The debate is whether or not the marketplace ought to have a function in determining the cost of health care, or whether or not the federal government ought to make all the decisions," Bush said during a conversation on health care hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "I've made my stand. I believe that the best health-care policy is one that empowers consumers, and one that understands the market."
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, had framed the debate differently Sunday in a town-hall meeting on health care in Bethlehem, Pa.
"Americans are staggering under the growing burden of health-care costs that are out of control, and the fact is George Bush hasn't lifted a finger to do anything about it. So I will use the money Bush spends on tax cuts for the wealthy to make health care more affordable for the middle class."
Of all the differences between Bush and Kerry, health care offers one of the most dramatic contrasts.
The president proposes to offer refundable tax credits to allow low-income Americans to buy health insurance; to form Associate Health Plans that would let small businesses band together to get the best insurance rates for their employees; and to limit medical-malpractice awards. His proposals wouldn't reach many of the 43 million Americans without health insurance, and wouldn't cost the Treasury very much.
Kerry's plan would provide health care-related tax credits to small businesses; have Washington pick up 75 percent of health-insurance cases over $50,000 to reduce costs for businesses and their workers; extend Medicaid coverage to low-income children and their parents; shift responsibility for those costs to Washington and away from cash-strapped state governments; and let workers buy into federal employees' health-coverage programs.
"The proposals are so (vastly) different," said Kenneth Thorpe, a former Clinton administration health-care official who's analyzed the proposals for Emory University. "It's a big difference in how much federal money is going to be used to subsidize health insurance for poor families."
Kerry's plan would cost $895 billion over 10 years, according to Thorpe's analysis, and would cover about 26.7 million uninsured Americans. Bush's proposal would cost $60 billion over 10 years and have an impact on 2 million to 3 million Americans, Thorpe estimates. White House officials say the president's proposals would cost more than $100 billion over 10 years
Bush campaign officials have used Thorpe's analysis in television ads claiming that Kerry would raise federal taxes by $900 billion within 100 days of taking office, a charge that the senator denies. But Kerry hasn't said how he'd pay for his plan. He advocates repealing Bush's tax cuts for Americans who earn more than $200,000 a year, but that would provide only about $300 billion over a decade.
The president contended Tuesday that he solved some of the most vexing health-care issues by getting the Medicare prescription-drug plan through Congress last year.
"I thought we had an obligation to our seniors, as did members of the United States Congress, to provide a modern system, a reformed system - a system, frankly, that hadn't been changed much since Lyndon Johnson first introduced Medicare," he said.
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