President Bush Addresses Health Care, Entitlement Programs In Final State Of The Union Address

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 30 Jan 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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In his final State of the Union address on Monday, President Bush appealed for "extending or cementing past initiatives," and he reintroduced ideas that in the past have gained no traction such as health care tax breaks and a cloning ban, the Washington Post reports (Baker, Washington Post, 1/29). In his address, Bush called for health care reform that involves market competition, rather than government mandates (Kranish/Milligan, Boston Globe, 1/29). Bush advocated a previous proposal that would provide tax deductions to help U.S. residents purchase individual health insurance or coverage through employers and would eliminate tax breaks for employer-sponsored health insurance in some cases.

According to Bush, Republicans and Democrats "share a common goal: making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans." He said, "The best way to achieve that goal is by expanding consumer choice, not government control. So I have proposed ending the bias in the tax code against those who do not get their health insurance through their employer. This one reform would put private coverage within reach for millions" (Wolf et al., USA Today graphic, 1/29).

Bush also said that Congress should "expand health savings accounts, create association health plans for small businesses, promote health information technology and confront the epidemic of junk medical lawsuits," all of which would "ensure that decisions about your medical care are made in the privacy of your doctor's office, not in the halls of Congress" (Bush speech text, Washington Post, 1/29).

Entitlement Programs
Bush "challenged members of the Democratic-majority Congress to reach bipartisan solutions" on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, according to the Globe (Boston Globe, 1/29).

Bush said, "Every member in this chamber knows that spending on entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is growing faster than we can afford. Now I ask members of Congress to offer your proposals and come up with a bipartisan solution to save these vital programs for our children and grandchildren" (AP/Austin American-Statesman, 1/28).

Other Health-Related Issues
In his address, Bush also called for Congress to:

• Approve a $30 billion, five-year extension of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief;
  
  
• Increase funds for research on "reprogrammed adult skin cells, which have the potential and do act like embryonic stem cells" (Ward, Washington Times, 1/29);
  
  
• Pass legislation that would ban "unethical practices such as the buying, selling, patenting or cloning of human life";
  
  
• Double "federal support for critical basic research in the physical sciences";
  
  
• Reauthorize and reform the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act;
  
  
• Pass legislation to implement recommendations by former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala to "improve the system of care for our wounded" veterans (Bush speech text, Washington Post, 1/29).

Democratic Response
In the Democratic response to the address, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) asked Bush to work with Congress "in the next 357 days to get real results and give the American people renewed optimism that their challenges are the top priority" (Abramowitz/Eggen, Washington Post, 1/29).

Sebelius called on Bush to support some Democratic proposals for health care reform (Lefler/Koranda, Wichita Eagle, 1/29). She said, "We know that we're stronger as a nation when our people have access to the highest-quality, most affordable health care, when our businesses can compete in the global marketplace without the burden of rising health care costs here at home" (Sebelius speech text, New York Times, 1/29). Sebelius also asked Bush to sign legislation to reauthorize and expand SCHIP as a "first step in overhauling our health care system" (Branigin, Washington Post, 1/29).

According to the Bergen Record, her comments do not indicate that Democrats are "holding their breath for a presidential change of heart" but that they are "aiming more for drawing distinctions with Bush ... in an election year with the presidency and their majorities at stake" (Kellman, Bergen Record, 1/29).

Editorial
"Monday night's address made us think what a different speech it might have been if Mr. Bush" had "made a real effort to reach for the bipartisanship he promised in 2002 and so many times since" on health care and other issues, a New York Times editorial states.

In the event that Bush had made such an effort, he "could have used last night's speech to celebrate a balanced budget, one in which taxes produce enough money to pay for the nation's genuine needs, including health care for poor children," according to the editorial. In addition, "he would have been able to use last night's speech to celebrate the expansion of health insurance to tens of millions of children with working parents," the editorial states.

According to the editorial, after Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug benefit into law, his "appetite for making health care accessible and affordable for all Americans vanished" (New York Times, 1/29).

Broadcast Coverage
Video of the State of the Union address and Democratic response is available online at kaisernetwork.org.

NPR's "Morning Edition" on Tuesday included a "fact check" of statements in the address (Montagne, "Morning Edition," NPR, 1/29). Audio of the segment is available online. Expanded NPR analysis of the Bush health insurance proposal also is available online.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.