The New York Times
January 11, 2002
by Robin Toner
“Federal officials confirmed this week that health care costs are climbing faster than they have in years, creating new strains on employers, individuals and government programs that cover the elderly and the poor.”
“… the proportion of people who believe that ‘radical change’ is needed in the health care system has risen, said the Republican pollster Bill McInturff.”
“Not surprisingly, administration officials insist that Mr. Bush will embrace, in his budget, a series of credible health care proposals not unlike what he offered last year – tax credits to help the uninsured buy coverage, particularly people recently laid off, and a new prescription drug proposal for the elderly, tied to an overhaul of Medicare.”
Mark McClellan, a senior White House health care adviser and member of the Council of Economic Advisers:
“The president’s definitely been interested in rising costs. His direction to us has been, if anything, to redouble our efforts to find approaches to keeping coverage affordable.”
Comment: Affordable for whom? The answer is that the administration wants to make health care affordable for the payers, specifically employers and the government. But their two primary proposals, tax credits and Medicare premium support, shift the costs to the patients, making care unaffordable for low to moderate income individuals. At the same time, these proposals protect the profits of the private health plans, again at the expense of the beneficiaries.
We don’t need “radical change” that shifts costs to those who are in the greatest need of health care services, thereby expanding financial barriers to care. Instead, we need radical change that establishes equity in our health care system and contains costs through mechanisms that improve allocation of our resources. We need a universal program of social insurance which utilizes global budgeting. And we need it now.