Sen. Richard Lugar's response to my Health Care email..

[and-justice-for-all]

Thank you for contacting me with your suggestions for health care reform. I share your interest in this important issue.

I agree with you that the availability of affordable health care is an issue of great importance to our nation. In particular, I believe that Congress must continue to address the long-term fiscal viability of three main entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. As Richard Fisher, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, noted in a May 29, 2008, speech: "Add together the unfunded liabilities from Medicare and Social Security, and it comes to $99.2 trillion over the infinite horizon."

Fisher and many fellow economists note that the majority of this liability is attributable to the Medicare and Medicaid programs mainly because spending for these programs, and across the health care sector generally, are rapidly outpacing the growth of inflation at a rate faster than Social Security. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that health care spending in both the public and private sectors composes 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), or 2 trillion dollars, and is expected to rise to almost 50 percent of GDP over the next 75 years. Of that amount, Medicare and Medicaid spending alone constitutes 4 percent of GDP and is expected to grow to 20 percent by 2083.

There are a number of reasons for this spending growth. Much of it is due to years of increasing wealth in our country, which has enabled Americans to more easily afford cutting-edge medical procedures and drug therapies and has subsequently led to longer life expectancies. However, the growth is also a result of vast inefficiencies in our health care delivery system.

There is not a silver-bullet solution to reigning in the rising cost of health care. However, Congress must work to strike a better balance between encouragement of medical and pharmaceutical research and development and minimization of waste and errors in providing care, specifically in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

For example, Congressional health reform proposals could include increased utilization of health information technology (HIT), such as electronic databases, securitized online medical records, and telemedicine. HIT has the ability to reduce incidences of medical errors, streamline administrative paperwork, and prevent unnecessary repetition in services, all which drive up costs. HIT also has the ability to deliver better quality of care to patients who live in rural, medically under-served communities.

I will have your thoughts closely in mind as discussions on how best to reform our health care system continues in Congress. Thank you, again, for sharing your thoughts with me.



Sincerely,


Richard G. Lugar
United States Senator

[rgbecker]

1. For the Republicans, its all about cost.....

Nothing about getting health care for people with no insurance. Nothing about why private insurance companies are involved in health decisions. Nothing about why private insurance companies need to get to skim 30% off the top of every health care dollar spent. Nothing about small businesses having to pay off insurance companies, just like the mafia, just to stay in business.

[avaistheone1]

2. Then Lugar should get behind single-payer, because it is actually the most cost effective

alternative.