One Third of Americans Call for Health System Rebuild While SCHIP Faces New Veto

Thursday the SCHIP legislation cleared the senate by a vote of 64-30, still not enough to override the promised veto from the executive branch. This would be President Bush's second veto of this legislation.

The Associated Press analysis of the situation yields the following:

In a situation of bewildering political complexity, Republicans dictated the decision to pass the legislation speedily. It appeared their goal was to short-circuit attempts by supporters of the bill to reach a compromise that could attract enough votes in the House to override Bush's veto.

Attempts by [U.S. Senator Harry] Reid to delay final passage of the bill until next week or longer drew objections from the Republicans.

This new round in the ongoing SCHIP battle comes as Science News brings us the results of a new seven nation study by the Commonwealth Fund, showing that over one third of Americans want a total rebuild of our health care system from the ground up. This is the highest rate of any of the countries surveyed, and cites medical errors, costs, and long waits for treatment as major contributing factors.

As in previous surveys, U.S. adults were most likely to have gone without care because of cost and to have high out-of-pocket costs. In the U.S., nearly two of five (37%) of all adults and 42% of those with chronic conditions had skipped medications, not seen a doctor when sick, or foregone recommended care in the past year because of costs -- rates well above all other countries. In contrast to the U.S., patients in Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.K. rarely report having to forgo needed medical care because of costs.

In addition, one-fifth of U.S. adults report serious problems paying medical bills--more than double the rate in the next highest country. And nearly one third (30%) in the U.S. spent more than $1,000 in the past year out-of-pocket -- a level rare in most of the other countries.

Some additional statistics provided from the report include:

• 1 in 5 report doctors advising treatment perceived as having little to no benefit


• Only in the Netherlands do people spend more time on paperwork and medical bill/insurance disputes


• The U.S. has the second highest percentage of adult visits to the emergency room (36%) out of nations surveyed, exceeded only by Canada.

SOURCE: "Congress Passes New Child Health Care Bill, Setting Up Another Veto Fight With Bush" 11/02/07
SOURCE: "One Third of U.S. Adults call For Completely Rebuilding Health Care System" 11/04/07
remixed photo courtesy of James and Vilija, used under this Creative Commons license

Let The SCHIPs Fall Where They May

The State Child Health Care Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a major bone of contention between President Bush and the United States Senate. There is never a lack of strident debate when it comes to issues as polarizing as health care has become. Sources large and small are weighing in on the subject everywhere from major networks to the blogosphere.

Political correspondent John Fout talks about SCHIP and examines the brewing confrontation for The Street in his Market Features column:

The program provides coverage to poor children who are ineligible for coverage under Medicare and who lack private health insurance, and according to a Senate report, it's been a big success. According to the report, the number of uninsured children has decreased from 14% in 1997 to about 9% in 2005, bucking the opposite trend for adults.

Fout then proceeds to examine both the funding source for the new expansion and the President's rationale for his threatened veto:

The expansion of the SCHIP program would be funded by a small tax increase on cigarettes. A recent poll by the American Medical Association found that 70% of Americans support a tax hike to pay for children's health care. In addition, incremental increases in cigarette prices are thought to have played a role in decreases in smoking. This sounds like a win-win situation for public health.

Bush, however, prefers to fight expansion of the program. He favors funding care for poor children only -- rather than the lower- or middle-class families who'd be covered under the Senate bill -- and suggested that expansion would cause middle-class families to cancel private policies in favor of public policies. The expansion only affects people presently lacking coverage.

President Bush went on to characterize the bill as "federalization" of health care and to accuse Democrats of using the issue "to score political points." He has also promised to veto the bill once it reaches his desk. (As pointed out in our Aug. 3 post, it passed the Senate with a 68-31 margin -- sufficient to override a veto.)

SOURCE: "Bush Fights Losing Battle Over Kids' Health Care" 09/20/07
photo courtesy of Tenuda on Flickr

SCHIP

Wyoming Senator Helps Advance Health Care Reform

In the Casper Star Tribune today, Tom Morton writes about the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Edward Kennedy, a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts. The senior Senator from Wyoming, Republican Mike Enzi, previously held the position. Kennedy is entrusting Enzi "to grapple with the finer points of health care reform," according to Morton.

[...] instead of promoting a single comprehensive health care reform bill that could die by a thousand cuts, [Enzi is] promoting 10 different bills, he said.

They include allowing small businesses to band together and cross state lines to obtain group health insurance; allowing individuals to buy into group programs; and fostering coordinated health care technology.

The latter bill would save upward of $160 billion a year, he said. Individuals would have their records on a card that would eliminate the need to fill out multiple forms and inform physicians of previously performed tests to avoid duplicate testing [...]

The committee has been soliciting input from experts, "and has encouraged them to incorporate each other's ideas as it crafts legislation."

SOURCE: "Enzi, Kennedy Join Forces to Reform Health Care" 08/21/07
photo courtesy of "scol22, SXC"