Remarks by Senate Majority Ldr Frist and Tim Adams Regarding the New Bush-Cheney '04 Health Care Ad

ARLINGTON, VA-- Today, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Bush-Cheney '04 Policy Director Tim Adams made the following remarks regarding the new Bush-Cheney '04 health care ad:

Senator Bill Frist:
"Several points: Kerry’s health plan ultimately takes the power to make healthcare choices away from individuals and ends up giving it to the government. It costs more than twice as much as Kerry claims and will absolutely result in higher taxes on the middle class. President Bush, in contrast, has a record of improving healthcare for Americans. He’s got bold new ideas which we can talk about, which will lead to a vision which is important for people to understand, which centers on the patient, which is driven by consumers and Americans across this great country and is provider friendly -- a patient-centered, consumer-driven, provider-friendly type system.

"The contrast is dramatic. The Bush record is really centered on promises that were made back in the last campaign, and those promises have been kept working with the Republican Congress. And the Kerry record, which doesn’t look forward but looks backward for ideas, would result in high costs, high taxes. It stands in the way of real reforms; it looks backward not forward and does not address the fundamental root causes of high healthcare costs today. Senator Kerry’s been in the Senate for twenty years. He has a very shallow record of healthcare accomplishments over that twenty years. In contrast, President Bush, working with Congressional Republicans, who have won major victories on behalf of those patients and consumers over the last four years. The example as you all know is the Medicare Prescription Drug Law. Everyone said it was impossible when the President was first saying it and we delivered on that, providing already today lower-cost prescription drugs to millions of seniors. It will really begin to take effect with the more comprehensive plan next year.

"Secondly, community health centers. Three million more low-income Americans are getting healthcare because of President Bush’s historic expansion of neighborhood community health centers. The tax-free savings accounts, again an innovative idea, a creative idea which gives all Americans the opportunity to have ownership and have control over their own healthcare choices and hard-earned dollars; the vision that he’s laid out on patient safety, which we’re working on through the Congress now; electronic medical records all speak for themselves.

"What again is a huge contrast is the crystal-clear agenda that the President has spelled out as we look ahead. I know Tim Adams talked to that, but things like the Association Health Plans and the expansion of these plans, which will give small companies the ability – really the same ability these larger firms have – to negotiate healthcare premiums; the refundable tax credits which will give lower-income Americans and the small business owner out there the ability to purchase affordable healthcare; the convention introduced the important point and proposal - which has not been debated much but I’m very excited about – about making health insurance more affordable by allowing consumers to choose and freedom to shop for affordable coverage that is licensed in any state. As we look ahead, the expansion of the HSAs and the medical liability issue which the President has led on -- we in the Congress, in the United States Senate, have tried to bring to the floor three times. That dramatizes Senator Kerry’s absence on addressing issues that we know unnecessarily drive up the cost of healthcare for every American higher and higher and higher.

"Just a quick comment and I’ll close. Senator Kerry and his running mate John Edwards from my perspective – because as Majority Leader I see it play out on the floor of the United States Senate – they both have loudly and consistently opposed common sense medical liability reforms. There are twenty states in crisis now today and [in] those states it’s getting harder and some of them next to impossible to find an Ob-gyn to deliver a baby. Trauma centers are at risk of closing. Physicians are leaving those states. It’s an issue that has to be addressed. It has cost anywhere from $25-100 billion in defensive medicine and that’s waste and that gets passed on to the consumer – to every American.

"Kerry’s opposed giving affordable prescription drugs to seniors, under the new Medicare Prescription Law.

"Kerry and Edwards opposed the health savings accounts which give more Americans that opportunity to have more affordable health insurance coverage. The Kerry plan is looking backwards. It’s another government program. It fails to address the root causes which are driving healthcare premiums through the roof. His plan is shifting billions of dollars in skyrocketing healthcare costs onto the backs of the taxpayers. It ultimately gives bureaucrats in Washington more control over their healthcare decisions when those decisions should be made – and the President will work hard to see that they’re made – by patients in consultation with their doctors. The Kerry plan is a recipe for excessive government involvement at the same time doctors and patients should be making decisions without that headache of bureaucratic interference.

"One last issue, because I believe America will begin to focus on this issue, is the cost of the Kerry plan. There is a huge economic cost. The American Enterprise Institute released their study today. The authors are respected individuals and they show that John Kerry’s healthcare proposal, which is the most expensive of Kerry’s new spending initiatives, even by his own standards, will in reality cost twice – two times – what their estimates were. There are two gaps. One in his healthcare plan which AEI says will cost $1.5 trillion over the next ten years and then I would argue that introduces a real credibility gap, because if Kerry were to deliver on that promise he clearly could give with one hand but with the other hand he’s taking away a huge amount placing a burden on the middle class taxpayers. This whole gap between what would be required to what would be available is a gap that has become an enormous canyon.

"As you can tell I’m very excited about President Bush’s agenda; proud of his accomplishments. We’ve opened the door in lots of areas that will help modernize our healthcare system that will transform it to a patient-centered, provider-friendly, consumer-driven system, whereas John Kerry simply looks to the past, makes promises which simply cannot be kept, and proposes more government control rather than focus on patient-doctor, consumer-driven controls. With that I’ll stop and let Tim Adams take over."

Tim Adams
"I’ll just mention the three components that are noted in the ad, the three components of the President’s comprehensive healthcare agenda. The first one being the Association Health Plan. The President proposes Association Health Plans to help small businesses provide coverage for their employees by joining together to purchase insurance at the same discounts that big corporations are able to achieve, in addition to supporting AHPs for small businesses. This President proposes allowing local groups to band together into regional and national organizations to negotiate low price coverage for their members -- again, just giving small businesses the same kind of pricing advantage that large corporations have. John Kerry has opposed this.

"Medical liability reform: The Senator spoke about medical liability lawsuits driving good doctors out of practice, driving up healthcare costs for everyone, and threatening access to needed care. Lawsuits are costing Americans as much as $108 billion a year. John Kerry has opposed or voted to block medical liability reform at least ten times. And then last, the third component that’s noted in the ad are the Health Savings Accounts. More than half of the uninsured are small business employees and their families. President Bush proposes giving small business owners a refundable tax credit for contributions they make to their employees’ HSAs. And this applies to the first $500 per worker for family coverage and the first $200 for worker for individual coverage. To extend the benefits of HSAs to low income Americans the President proposes giving families a $1000 direct contribution to their HSA along with a $2000 refundable tax credit to help purchase a policy to cover major medical expenses, essentially catastrophic care. Individuals would receive a $300 HSA contribution and a $700 refundable tax credit.

"And then the ad goes on at the end to explain that John Kerry’s government-run healthcare plan would cost $1.5 trillion, as the Senator noted, and takes decision-making powers away from doctors and patients and puts it squarely in Washington with bureaucrats. Obviously for Senator Kerry to pay for this plan, given that his budget is already well over a trillion dollars in the hole and he still doesn’t include the costs of making middle class taxes permanent, this additional cost means that while he may say that he’s benefiting consumers and individuals on the one hand, he’s going to force them to pay for it in another way by raising their taxes. And let me just close by reiterating what the Senator said: this is really nothing more than a hostile government takeover of our nation’s healthcare system and I really think John Kerry is trying to lead us to a European or Canadian-style healthcare system. I point you to an interesting article that was in the New York Times yesterday on the problems that Canada is having with its healthcare system. It’s quite sobering to read about the loss of doctors and the long waiting lines that individuals have, and they still have a system that they can’t pay for."