Good Morning. In my State of the Union address, I spoke of a great priority for our nation, to
confront the rising cost of health care, and make sure that more of our
citizens can afford the health care they need. Health care costs are
rising too fast for many families and businesses. It is time to
address this problem directly, with five clear steps that Congress can
take this year.
First, we can help control rising health care costs by cutting down
on frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. When health care
providers are responsible for injuries, they should be accountable.
Yet no one was ever healed by a junk or frivolous lawsuit.
This week, I will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas, to visit Baptist
Health Medical Center. For Baptist and other hospitals across the
nation, frivolous lawsuits have dramatically increased the cost of
medical liability premiums. These costs are passed on to patients in
higher bills. These costs are driving doctors from important work,
such as delivering babies. And these costs are driving some doctors
out of medicine entirely.
In order to protect the doctor-patient relationship, Congress
should pass medical liability reform that removes the threat of
frivolous lawsuits and the needless costs they impose on our health
care system.
Second, we should help more small businesses afford health
insurance for their workers by allowing these firms to band together
and negotiate for lower insurance rates. These Association Health
Plans give small employers the same bargaining power as big companies,
making it easier for them to provide employee health coverage. The
House has passed a bill supporting these health plans, and the Senate
needs to act.
Third, Congress should give lower-income Americans refundable tax
credits to help them purchase health insurance. These tax credits
would total up to $1,000 for individuals and $3,000 for families. For
many Americans lacking health insurance, these credits would make the
difference between affording insurance, and going without.
Fourth, we should help Americans with their health care costs by
encouraging the use of health savings accounts. Congress passed these
accounts last year in the Medicare bill, allowing people to save money
for future medical expenses tax-free. People who make use of health
savings accounts also will buy high-deductible insurance policies to
protect them against catastrophic medical costs like hospitalization or
major surgery. This year, I am urging Congress to make those premiums
100 percent tax deductible. This new deduction would strengthen health
savings accounts, and make health insurance more affordable for
millions of Americans not covered through their workplace.
And fifth, we can control health care costs and improve care by
moving American medicine into the information age. My budget for the
coming year proposes doubling to $100 million the money we spend on
projects that use promising health information technology. This would
encourage the replacement of handwritten charts and scattered medical
files with a unified system of computerized records. By taking this
action, we would improve care, and help prevent dangerous medical
errors, saving both lives and money.
In all these measures, we are upholding the basic principle that
private health care and the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship
make America's health care the best in the world. And with the help of
Congress, this year we will strengthen our private system of care by
addressing the rising cost of health care, and helping more Americans
afford health coverage.