Hearing on Health Care Reform: Hearing Before the Committee on Small Business, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session ... Friday, April 24, 1992, Volume 4 |
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AARP access to health administrative costs afford Americans approach barriers basic health BINGAMAN Canadian system CHAIRMAN citizens clinic community health center comprehensive health comprehensive reform CONGRESS THE LIBRARY control costs County cover current system Dale Bumpers Delta doctors EASON ELDERS employers expensive Federal funding going Government GRESS health care costs health care coverage health care delivery health care reform health care services health care system health insurance healthcare in-vitro fertilization income increase John Eason Larnell Lee County LIBRARY OF CONGRESS long-term care malpractice Medicaid medical center medically underserved Medicare medicine Moody national health patients payment payors percent Medicare play or pay premiums prepared statement preventive primary care physicians private insurance problem providing health REEDER reimbursement rural areas Self-pay Senator Bumpers seniors Siloam Springs Memorial single-payor system small business spending Springs Memorial Hospital Thank uninsured University of Arkansas WESTBROOK
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Page 79 - AARP also supports the following incremental steps to improve the Medicaid program: (1 ) at a minimum, enable everyone whose income is at or below the federal poverty line to be eligible for Medicaid; (2) require states to have medicallyneedy programs for people of all ages; (3) adjust Medicaid reimbursement to help ensure adequate access to services; and (4) improve and update Medicaid data collection.
Page 79 - HEALTH CARE REFORM AARP believes that comprehensive reform of our health care system must become a national priority if we are to achieve the goal of assuring access to quality care for all our citizens and to gain control of escalating health care costs.
Page 79 - REFORM AARP believes that comprehensive reform of our health care system must become a national priority if we are to achieve the goal of assuring access to quality care for all our citizens and to gain control of escalating health care costs. We recognize that broad public consensus about the scope of the problem, and the need to share the risk of health care costs, will be key to Congressional action. To achieve broad public consensus, continued public education is essential. AARP is making education...
Page 76 - ... to control provider costs have increased the lack of uniformity in reimbursement practices between public and private sector programs and further contributed to the problem. Clearly, much can be done in these areas to make our health care system more efficient, both in the delivery of services and reducing unnecessary administrative costs. The problems caused by piecemeal solutions are also quite evident in long-term care coverage. We are all at risk of needing longterm care yet Medicare covers...
Page 78 - ... to address one of the most significant problems Americans of all ages face today — the lack of affordable coverage for long-term care services. AARP believes that comprehensive health care reform should not only provide access to basic health care services, but also provide access to needed long-term care services. Failure to address this issue leaves American families exposed to costs which devastate families, not just the aged, since families provide much of the financing and care to those...
Page 76 - ... is also severely limited. In addition to constant budgetary constraints, particularly at the state level, a means-tested program like Medicaid does not receive the broad public and political support granted to social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. Welfare-based programs, such as Medicaid, typically have...
Page 76 - ... premiums) averaged $248 annually for every man, woman, and child in the nation. By 1990, this figure had grown to $524, or 111 percent, compared to a general inflation rate of 58 percent (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) over the same time period. Many individuals — especially those excluded from group plans due to pre-existing conditions — have been left with the daunting task of finding health insurance on their own. Individual insurance policies are the most expensive and come...
Page 71 - ... efficiency of Medicare and the Canadian national health system. The table on the next page provides a summary of the key findings of the report ' Unless otherwise indicated, all figures are for 1988 in 1988 dollars.
Page 77 - In additbn, such proposals provide no guarantee that al[ individuals will have access to health care coverage. Expanding Medicaid to cover all of the poor is a step in the right direction, but it does not completely solve the access problem. There is still a great potential for people to "fall through the cracks" — much the same as they do now. When the twin flaws of this approach — little or no cost containment and no assurance of access — are taken together, their impact is compounded. In...
Page 76 - ... that program to carry out its mandate of providing basic health and long-term care services to the nation's poor. On the private side, long-term care insurance has not been able to adequately pool the risk to make long-term care policies affordable to a majority of Americans. Incremental Steps Toward Reform However well intended, piecemeal approaches to the problems of cost and access are no longer adequate. We need a comprehensive health care reform plan that assures access, adequately reimburses...