Posted on 08/27/2004 5:21:23 AM PDT by billorites
Last week I spoke with a number of New Hampshire families about their struggle to make ends meet in the face of soaring health care costs, lower wages and higher gas prices. They are suffering economically because they can’t afford to cover the cost of their health insurance premiums that have more than doubled under George Bush.
Business owners and workers all across our country know what too many politicians still won’t admit: We can’t fix our economy without fixing our health care system.
All across our country, jobs have moved overseas, where the cost of health care isn’t nearly as high. For companies struggling to stay here in the United States, the price of health care is rising beyond their ability to balance the books, invest in new business plans, or provide the quality of care they want for their workers.
It’s time we had leadership that understands that to become stronger at home, we can’t afford to have the rising cost of health care closing down factories and plants that provided good jobs and quality health care to their workers for decades. We can’t afford to have endless red tape and paperwork wasting millions that could be spent on better care. We can’t afford to have regular check-ups emptying family checkbooks.
I met Virginia Noble in Des Moines, Iowa. Virginia cut every cost and saved every penny, but can’t afford to insure the 11 employees who work in her sandwich shop. Small business owners like Virginia create the jobs that make America strong, but rising health care costs are making it harder to expand or even hold on to the workers she needs to succeed.
I met Albert Barker in Erie, Pa. Albert is 61 years old. He returned to work after his heart attack, but his employer couldn’t afford to provide insurance anymore. Re-hired as a temporary worker, Albert was forced to pay $290 a month for temporary coverage. Then his coverage ran out. His wife prays that nothing will go wrong. His company regrets they can’t afford his premiums. No one should have to live in fear that they are one doctor’s visit away from financial ruin.
These are just two stories of an economy slowed by soaring health care costs, an economy where premiums are rising four times faster than workers’ earnings. We need new leadership with a plan to control rising health care costs.
We can cut premiums by up to $1,000 for workers, and lower the cost of health care for businesses. To ease the burden of businesses in caring for catastrophic cases, we should reimburse businesses for 75 percent of the cost of catastrophic care.
We can help small businesses with tax credits to help them provide health insurance for low and moderate-income employees. Tax credits can cover up to 50 percent of the cost of the employers’ share of premiums. An employer paying at least 50 percent of the health insurance premium can be eligible for this new tax relief, helping business owners compete while doing right by their employees.
We should also get tough with the waste, fraud and abuse that’s driving health care costs sky-high. About 25 percent of the annual cost of health care goes towards non-medical costs. A transaction in the banking industry costs less than a penny, but settling a single health care transaction can cost as much as $25. We can give health providers incentives to simplify and streamline their paperwork.
Lastly, there are common sense steps we can take to reduce medical malpractice premiums. We can weed out frivolous lawsuits by requiring that a qualified specialist certifies a medical malpractice case’s merit before it moves forward. We can make the system fairer by preventing and punishing frivolous lawsuits — including a “three strikes and you’re out” law that forbids lawyers who file three frivolous cases from bringing another suit for the next 10 years.
And we can eliminate the special privileges that allow insurance companies to fix prices and collude in ways that increase medical malpractice premiums.
No business should ever have to compromise on health care coverage to stay competitive. With these reforms, we will make real savings in the cost of health care so they no longer face that choice. American companies will have an easier time competing around the world, and American small businesses will have more money to grow and create new jobs.
It’s time we started to fix our economy by finally fixing our health care system.
John F. Kerry is the Democratic nominee for President.
"Lastly, there are common sense steps we can take to reduce medical malpractice premiums. We can weed out frivolous lawsuits by requiring that a qualified specialist certifies a medical malpractice case’s merit before it moves forward. We can make the system fairer by preventing and punishing frivolous lawsuits..."
I swear, you just can't make this stuff up. LOL!
You call that a plan?
John F*ckin' wants Canadacare? Bully for him. The rest is fluff.
"All across our country, jobs have moved overseas, where the cost of health care isn’t nearly as high."
Nor is it as good.....
Ya gits what ya pays fer....
Did you notice that "qualified specialist " isn't defined? Is a "qualified specialist" a malpractice attorney?
Anyone who thinks that socialized medicine is such a nifty idea should be made to spend some time in a country that has it.
And by electing Kerry, we can guarentee John Edwards will not be filing any more frivious lawsuits for at least 4 more years.
The MSM had their talking points this morning focused on increased poverty numbers and an increase of those without health care. Get ready, HillaryCare has left the station and is headed to a town near you.
That is a lock.
The good news of CanadaCare for America would be that those medicines would not have cost as much. But the bad news is that the pharmaceutical companies would not have the money and incentive to develop better medicines in the same way that in the past they developed the medicines that in fact helped Mother.
Socialism is second guessing. After "the means of production" has already been created, then the socialist is a hero about taking credit for that creation (a.k.a. "ownership" of it) from the creator to the government (meaning, themselves). But since second guessing is only possible after the fact, socialism implicitly denies - and, given authority, negates - the possibility of future progress.
That's why they call it "progressive." </sarcasm>
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