Lieberman Unveils Health Care Plan to Treat America Right
September 2, 2003New approach will deliver more coverage, better care, for less money
SILVER SPRING, MD Joe Lieberman today released a resourceful, realistic plan to make the American health care system work better for the American people, promising to move the country toward universal access to affordable health insurance, reduce spiraling costs for families and businesses, improve the quality of care, and find cures to chronic diseases.
Lieberman said George W. Bush is guilty of "partisan political malpractice" for failing to curb the rising price of health care, enhance the delivery of services, and extend coverage to a single uninsured American. "In fact, he's made things worse -- on George Bush's watch, a million Americans a year are losing their health insurance."
Lieberman said his plan would fill this lapse in leadership, first by providing affordable coverage to more than 31 million Americans who currently lack health insurance including every child in the country for a lower cost per person than any of his Democratic competitors. Lieberman said his plan would also guarantee that no one would lose their health care if they lose their job. And it would deploy smart new tools to prevent illness and make America healthier.
"How do I propose that we do all this?" Lieberman said. "By moving step-by-step as we get the economy going and bring the deficit down. By smartly targeting our resources first on the people who need the help most -- children and workers who are falling through the cracks. By building on what works in the current system and fixing what does not. By cutting waste and improving efficiency. And by strengthening public health, wellness, and other prevention programs that will deter disease, save lives, and reduce costs."
Speaking to parents, students, health care professionals, and educators at the Broad Acres Elementary School children's health center, Lieberman said his plan would put a special focus on covering kids and giving them a healthy start in life.
First, the Lieberman plan would give all children regardless of income the ability to get affordable health insurance the moment they are born, through an innovative new program called MediKids. This approach, first proposed by the nation's pediatricians, is modeled on the successful system for federal employees. It will offer comprehensive care, real choice, low premiums and substantial assistance to low-income families.
Second, it would create a national network of school-based health centers, much like the Broad Acres facility, that would work in tandem with MediKids to provide today's busy families with easy access to quality care, preventative services, and health education. There are currently 1,500 such centers across the country, and the Lieberman plan would expand the presence of these facilities in the nation's 66,000 elementary schools particularly in rural and other high-need communities.
"It's an outrage today that 9 million American children are uninsured, and I'll provide coverage to every child," Lieberman said. "But our kids don't just need health insurance--they need more and better places to get health care. The new school-based centers I'll create will save busy families time and money--and in addition to offering treatment, they'll help kids eat right, exercise, and live healthier from the start."
Among other things, the Lieberman plan would:
Create a new streamlined purchasing pool called MediChoice -- to provide affordable health insurance to adults who are currently falling through the cracks: single moms, part-time and seasonal workers, small business employees, and the unemployed. Like MediKids, MediChoice will offer subsidies to low-income workers to make sure they can get coverage.
Deliver health care that's always there even if you lose your job. The Lieberman "KeepCare" initiative would provide a combination of tax credits, COBRA subsidies, extensions of employer-sponsored health insurance, and new choices to help workers who are laid off keep their coverage.
Reduce costs, cut waste and improve efficiency by adopting sensible malpractice reform, investing in new technologies, incentivizing new disease management practices, and sharing better information with consumers.
Improve patient care by rejuvenating our public health system, increasing investments in preventative services and health education, ending racial and gender disparities in treatment, and cutting medical errors, which kill upwards of 100,000 people a year, in half within five years.
Find cures to the diseases afflicting 100 million Americans. As he announced earlier this year, Lieberman will create an American Center for Cures, whose sole mission will be to translate the breathtaking research being done in labs across the country into lifesaving treatments for chronic illnesses. He also promises to rescind the regressive Bush restrictions on stem cell research on his first day in office.
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