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The White House
Health Care Reform Today
October 14, 1993
Yesterday several Republican members of Congress introduced a
"medical IRA" bill. Other Republican Senators have introduced
credible plans. But the Gramm bill is nothing but an endorsement of
the status quo. The Gramm bill identifies consumers as the source of
our health care woes, asking them to be more "price sensitive." And
it identifies insurance companies as the victims -- allowing them to
continue to charge any price, any time -- using a person's age,
occupation, health history or any excuse for rate hikes. While the
Health Security plan puts consumers and small businesses in the
driver's seat, this plan leaves insurance companies in the driver's
seat -- and consumers and small businesses on the side of the road.
These far-right Republican politicians have questioned what the
Health Security plan does about bureaucracy. They should be ashamed
of themselves. Look at their plan. It does nothing to cut insurance
company red tape, nothing to standardize the number of forms,
nothing to simplify billing or eliminate fine print.
The Health Security plan reduces insurance company red tape by
requiring insurance companies to use a single claim form to
replace the thousands of forms that exist today. The plan
introduces a Health Security card to reduce paperwork and
standardize electronic billing. It's simple -- you walk into the
doctor's office, hand over the card, get the care you need, and
fill out one form when you're done. That's all -- no filling out
piles of forms, no wading through the fine print.
Supporters of health reform continue to point to the problem of
today's rising prescription drug costs. For 3 out of 4 older
Americans, prescription drugs are the highest out of pocket
health care cost. And over eight million older Americans are
forced to choose between buying food and medicine.
On average, drug companies spend more on marketing and
advertising than they do on research and development. An average
of $3.58 per prescription goes to marketing and advertising,
while an average of $2.70 per prescription goes to research and
development expenses. And drug companies charge U.S. citizens
much higher prices than the citizens of other industrialized
nations.
Under the Health Security plan, prescription drug prices will
be contained. Health plans and the federal government will be
able to negotiate with drug companies for a discount on the price
of prescription drugs.