| Bush Announces Health Care Agenda | |
Dateline: 02/25/02
Calling for a reformed and innovative system giving patients more options than orders, President Bush announced his national health care agenda and urged Congress to act on it this year.
Ideally, the president would like Congress to pass key legislation like the HMO-reforming patients' bill of rights and Medicare prescription drug benefits before November's critical mid-term congressional elections, when all 435 seats in the House and 34 Senate posts will be up for grabs.
In a speech before the Medical College of Wisconsin, President Bush summarized his health care agenda stating, "We must reform health care in America. We must build a modern, innovative health care system that give patients more options and fewer orders and strengthens the doctor-patient relationship."
Key Elements of the Bush Health Care Agenda
Stressing a need to create a health care system that puts the needs of patients first, the
President proposed steps to:
- help all Americans get affordable health care coverage
- help patients get high-quality care every time
- develop new treatments to keep patients healthy and prevent complications from diseases and strengthen the health care safety net.
The President also announced that he would propose over $300 billion in federal spending to support his health care agenda.
The following details of the Bush administration's national health care agenda were released by the White House, Office of the Press Secretary: (For more information, click on links below descriptions.)
• Patient-Centered Health Care: The President believes that we should trust patients, working with health care professionals, to decide which treatment is best for them. Everyone should be able to choose a health care plan that meets their needs at a price they can afford. When people have good choices, health plans have to compete for their business - which means higher quality and better care. Many Americans enjoy access to good choices in employer-sponsored health care plans, but many others do not have good coverage options or are in danger of losing them. The President proposes to address this problem through over $117 billion in initiatives to make good health care coverage more available and affordable, as well as initiatives to improve the options available to people enrolled in the Medicaid and S-CHIP programs.
- Health Accounts
- Association Health Plans
- Health Credits
- Innovative Health Care Options in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program
- Stronger Medicare with Improved Benefits
- Modern Long-Term Care
• Create an Environment Encouraging and Rewarding Quality:
- Effective Patient Protections
- Better Information for Patients
- Support for Efforts by Health Care Professionals to Improve Quality
• Create a Health Care 'Safety Net' and Increase Research: The President's proposals for improving health care coverage options will make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans, and will provide better and more up-to-date coverage options for many millions more. But the President believes that we must also improve access to preventive and primary care for Americans who are not insured. Additionally, many of our nation's uninsured or medically underserved live in rural areas or inner city neighborhoods where there is a shortage of physicians and other health care providers. Strengthening the health care safety net is a necessary part of improving American's access to care, and to helping our health care system focus on preventing disease rather than treating avoidable complications. The President has proposed major initiatives to strengthen the health care safety net.
- Expanded Community Health Centers
- Improving Service to the Underserved Through the National Health Service Corps
- Doubling the Budget of the National Institutes of Health
- Heightened Vigilance for Public Health Threats
- Public Health Education
• Complete text of President Bush's health care agenda speech
