CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- President Bush continued plugging his healthcare reform package at a Tennessee hospital Wednesday.
As at previous appearances, he emphasized the role of the private market, consumers and states.
"We've got a problem with healthcare," the president told the audience at a hospital in Chattanooga. "It's not affordable, and it's not accessible to too many of our people."
The basic vehicle for healthcare should be the market and not the government, according to Bush, and policies that help individuals participate in that market should be the basis of any healthcare reform.
The $7,500 per-person tax deduction proposed in the State of the Union address would both help the working uninsured purchase health insurance and strengthen the individual insurance market, he said.
Health savings accounts, in which consumers must track their own health spending, offer an affordable option to even more individuals and increase price transparency in the healthcare market, Bush said.
The success of Medicare's new prescription-drug benefit, which allows seniors to choose between dozens of private plans, is evidence that letting individuals participate in the private market works, he added. "It's amazing what happens when consumers are making decisions."
The president then turned to other healthcare reform staples.
State and federal law should be changed to facilitate small-business health pools so that small employers can afford to offer their employees coverage, he said. State governments can reduce costs further by establishing separate pools for high-risk patients.
Defensive medicine is costing the federal government $28 billion per year, Bush said, and the only solution is to place limits on medical malpractice lawsuits.
