Democrats Attempt to Fix Healthcare, Bush Wants It Broken

[McCamy Taylor]

Two articles from the latest issue of American Medical News show how Congressional Democrats are attempting to correct the last six years of Bush administration incompetence/malevolence. The mismanagement that has left us with rising infant mortality, a public health infrastructure that is ill equipped to handle an influenza pandemic or bird flu outbreak, and which has seen the number of uninsured rise while our nation's emergency rooms desperately struggle to take up the slack. We have a doctor shortage that is going to be felt especially hard when and if more people suddenly get health insurance. Pediatricians are already feeling the crunch thanks to CHIPs. Drug prices are through the roof and the meds we are being sold are not being safety tested by our rubber stamp FDA. Managed care is back to its old tricks, penalizing doctors financially if they provide necessary care for patients and labeling these doctors as "bad" on line.

In the face of this crisis, here are some of the laws which Congress is attempting to hammer out--and which W. is vowing to veto.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/08/13/gvsc0813.htm

The House last month passed a $472 billion fiscal 2008 budget for the Dept. of Health and Human Services that would allocate more funding for key health programs. But the bill faces a veto threat from President Bush because its overall spending is more than the administration supports.

The measure would increase funding for Medicare, Medicaid and the National Institutes of Health. It rejects Bush's proposal to nearly eliminate funding for the Title VII program, which finances education and training programs for primary care physicians and preventive medicine specialists. It also rejects proposed funding cuts to the National Health Service Corps, which works to recruit primary care physicians for underserved communities.

The country desperately needs more primary care physicians. Having a regular doctor has been proven to improve people's health status. In addition, as more people become insured, there will be a need for more doctors. The only people who benefit from a lack of doctors are the health insurers, who will pay less in claims if their members can not find anyone to treat them.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/08/13/gvsa0813.htm

Democrats also voted to increase SCHIP funding, and the House would "provide 0.5% payment increases for physicians in Medicare in both 2008 and 2009, instead of the 9.9% and 5% reductions predicted under current law." As I mentioned elsewhere, this across the board pay cut which the administration plans in the face of the current physician shortage seems designed to encourage doctors to close their practices to new Medicare patients, which would increase the "hassle factor" for Medicare patients. This in turn would make Medicare unpopular with the general public and make people think that a government operated health care program can not succeed.

Bush has said that he will veto SCHIP bills--even though SCHIP is massively popular even with many of his own party members--presumably because SCHIP is another successful government sponsored health insurance program, and his administration is intent upon proving that government can not provide health care.

The mainstream media talks about SCHIP but we will not hear about the many other health care battles that are being waged. The Republicans are in bed with the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. They want to keep Americans sick and scared. And they absolutely do not want Congressional Democrats to deliver anything that might improve the medical conditions under which Americans live, because they plan to blame every lost life on the Democrats.

The Republicans running for office in 2008 may try to distance themselves from W., but he is doing exactly what his party wants done when he attempts to keep this nation sick and on the verge of a health disaster. The only fix for our system is a >60 Democratic majority in the Senate and a Democrat in the White House.