http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060119/D8F7P1M00.htmlBush's idea how to deal with the rising cost of health care.
1. Make the consumer save up for it.* Raising the dollar amount allowed to accumulate in existing health savings accounts. In these accounts, people shoulder more of the responsibility for the costs of care. They deposit money tax-free into a dedicated account while purchasing a high-deductible policy to cover catastrophic expenses.
Gee, only two more years before I can afford that quintuple bypass I need to stay ali...(urk!)2. Make the consumer pay for it.* Additional tax breaks to help people who do not have employer-provided insurance coverage buy their own.
Sure, it's only $6800 a year, but at least it's tax-free, or at least it would if I made enough to pay taxes in the first place. Now, if I could only figure out how to come up with the rent money...3. Remember COBRA? We'll make it COBRA'er.* More portability for health insurance when people switch jobs.
So, is Wal-Mart going to pick up the portion of premiums my old boss used to pay before my tech job got offshored to India?4. Show people exactly how they're getting screwed.* A way for people to get more information about the price of the care they get and the performance of the doctors they see.
Of course, none of the good doctors (let alone cheap) are on my plan. Are you going to show me how to avoid getting screwed, too?5. Voting with computers worked so well, let's try it with your medical records.* A switch from paper medical records to more cost-effective, error-reducing electronic records.
What do you mean I'm fired? That medical info was supposed to be confidential.6. Make the consumer pay for it.* The ability for small businesses to pool the purchasing of health insurance coverage across state lines.
Of course, this doesn't mean we're actually going to get medical coverage, does it?7. Add insult to injury.* A cap on malpractice verdicts other than actual economic damages, something Bush has been able to get through the House three years in a row, but not the Senate.
So the surgeon did an appendectomy on your late husband when he was supposed to do a quad bypass? Look here, lady, we paid the funeral expenses, including the pine box the mail-order preacher who did the ceremony, and the plot under the freeway overpass; isn't that enough? Hang on a minute while I call the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance.Anyway, don't hold out any hope that the Bush administration is going to do anything that's actually useful, or saves you any money, or prevents you from being killed, maimed, or disabled by your doctor. Remember that really neato plan he had for Social Security he had last year? That cool idea that we could turn the Middle East into a democratic utopia (and bring back 99 cent gas) if we invaded Iraq? That really bitchin' No Child Left Behind Act that was supposed to turn our dumb kids into geniuses (like George)? Now he wants to apply the same concept to health care.
Tell ya what, George. Just go out and play golf until January 2009. We'll be fine, really. We don't need any more of your "leadership."