• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

President George W. Bush smiles as the audience – including Vice President Dick Cheney, lef

Journalists, politicians and citizens watching TV or listening to the radio anticipated most of what President Bush said during the third State of the Union address of his term.

Generally speaking, the president addressed various aspects of the country’s health. More specifically, he outlined recent legislation to address the health of 40 million citizens who depend on the federal government for insurance coverage.

Health care was a key policy issue the Bush administration had been tackling in the past two months, with the president having signed sweeping health coverage legislation.

The bill aimed to reform Medicare, the federal government’s health plan, by changing prescription drug coverage benefits and increasing the role of private health providers in covering subscribers.

Bush had pushed for the legislation for a substantial period of time, addressing the issue in consecutive weekly radio addresses. But for many watching the State of the Union address, it was the first time the President had given an explanation of the new legislation.

“Our nation’s health care system, like our economy, is also in a time of change,” Bush said in the latter half of his address.

Many of those changes include a temporary discount card for seniors for prescription drug costs, with drug coverage under Medicare by 2006. With such reforms, Bush said seniors can anticipate an approximate 50 percent reduction in their current prescription drug bills under Medicare.

One UCLA professor specializing in health care issues said the president was effective in presenting the Medicare bill in his address. But that effectiveness, he said, disguised elements of the policy that are misleading at best.

“There are many reasons to be fairly skeptical about this,” said Mark Peterson, chairman of the UCLA department of policies studies who also teaches political science.

Peterson noted that Bush identified a particular category of beneficiaries who would see their drug expenditures decrease by half.

But a large number will see either less coverage or be surprised that as their coverage needs increase, they will encounter a gap in coverage.

In his response to the State of the Union address, Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the country needs to seriously explore cheaper avenues for prescription drugs. These avenues, he said, should include crossing borders into Canada.

Bush also talked about increasing the role that private insurers play in providing Medicare benefits, saying a government-run health care system is “the wrong prescription.”

Instead, he said the country should “preserve the system of private medicine that makes America’s health care the best in the world.”

Peterson said the statement needs to be considered in a broader context. He cited that Bush was correct in regard to aspects such as physician training, but argued the U.S. health care system has a dismal record on equally providing services along racial, economic and educational categories.

“He is determined to create an environment where private insurers can reenter the Medicare market,” Peterson said.

He added that the colleagues with whom he served on the National Academy of Social Insurance are skeptical of a “schizophrenic” plan to control costs by throwing “massive sums of money to privates to get them to play in the first place.”