The Economist: on Health Care
Al Gore:
Cover 12 million uninsured at a 10-year cost of $157 billion
Gore has a more articulate, wide-ranging strategy on health, besides a more aggressive attitude to drug companies and HMOs. He proposes to: - Cover 12 million uninsured at a 10-year cost of $157 billion
- proposes to extend health insurance to the
uninsured by expanding the State-Children’s Insurance Program (S-CHIP) to include both more children and also their parents.
- wants to change the Medicare rules to let Americans buy into the program with the help of a 25% tax credit, ten years earlier
than they can now. Estimates for costs and coverage are 12 million more Americans insured, at a cost of $157 billion over ten years.
- proposes providing a subsidized prescription drug benefit to all enrolled in Medicare, administered through the
existing Medicare system. Estimated costs: $253 billion over ten years.
- supports a patients’ bill of rights which extends broad rights such as guaranteed access to specialists and the ability to sue negligent health plans.
Source: The Economist, “Issues 2000”
Sep 30, 2000
George W. Bush:
Cover 3 million uninsured at a 10-year cost of $135 billion
Health care divides the candidates on the balance of power they propose between the public and private sectors. Gore served in the health-conscious Clinton administration; health is traditionally a Democratic issue. Bush has governed a state with one
of the worst public-health records in the country. He says he would: - introduce a wider set of tax credits (up to $2,000 for a family earning $30,000 a year) to help people buy their own health insurance. Estimated cost and coverage: 3 million more
Americans insured, at a cost of $135 billion over ten years.
- spend $158 billion over ten years restructuring the administrative and delivery system of Medicare, relying on private health-care companies to compete in offering insurance covering the
full range of existing Medicare services and a new prescription-drug benefit.
- support a patients' bill of rights that would give patients in federally regulated health plans a limited right to sue. Texas passed such a law without Bush's support.
Source: The Economist, "Issues 2000"
Sep 30, 2000
Kamala Harris:
Cancel medical debt and cap drug costs
Some of the medical elements of Ms Harris's plan are, in theory, more welcome [than her plans on price-gouging & housing ]. She is right to want to bring down America's outrageously high medical costs. But as with any price controls, caps on the cost of
insulin (at $35 a month) and out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs (at $2,000 a year) risk generating unwanted outcomes. Similar steps by the Biden administration to cap drug costs for seniors are now threatening to cause hefty increases in
their insurance premiums.Ms Harris has also said that she would work with states to cancel medical debts. Again, her aim is laudable: it is scandalous that so many Americans are saddled with medical debt. Yet just cancelling debt would only reset the
clock for them, with debts once again piling up whenever they need medical attention. "Why are health care costs so high in the first place? That's a legitimate question but it does not lend itself to quick fixes," says [a Columbia University analyst].
Source: The Economist on 2024 Presidential hopefuls
Aug 21, 2024
Page last updated: Sep 29, 2024