textfiles-politics/politicalTextFiles/health.txt

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                        CLINTON/GORE ON
                 AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE



We can't afford four more years without a president
with a plan and the will to guarantee affordable,
quality health care for every American.  The
American health care system costs too much and does
not work. It leaves 60 million Americans without
adequate health insurance and bankrupts our
families, our businesses, and our federal budget.
Instead of putting people first, Washington favors
the insurance companies the drug companies, and the
health care bureaucracies.  They are strangling the
most advanced health care system in the world.

And working Americans are paying the price.  Since
1980, the average cost of individual health
insurance rose from $1000 to $3000 a year.  Today
health care costs are the number one cause of
labor disputes, bankruptcies, and growth in the
federal deficit.  People can't change jobs because
insurance companies will deny them coverage because
of "pre-existing conditions." Small businesses are
caught between going broke and doing right by their
employees.  Working men and women are forced to pay
more while their employers cover less.

Health care should be a right, not a privilege.
And it can be.  We are going to preserve what's
best in our system: your family's right to choose
who provides care and coverage, American innovation
and technology, and the world's best private
doctors and hospitals.  But we will take on the
bureaucracies and corporate interests to make
health care accessible to every American.

The United States is the only advanced country in
the world without a national health care plan. In
the first year of a Clinton/Gore Administration,
that will change.  We will send a national health
care plan to Congress, and we will fight to pass
it.  No American family should have to go from the
doctor's office to the poorhouse.

Cap national spending to control health care costs

*    Create a health standards board made up of
     consumers, providers, business, labor and
     government.  The health standards board will
     establish an annual health budget for the
     nation to limit both public and private
     expenditures.

*    Crack down on billing fraud and eliminate
     incentives that invite abuse.

Take on the insurance industry

*    Ban underwriting practices that waste billions
     trying to discover which patients are bad
     risks; prohibit companies from denying
     coverage to individuals with pre-existing
     conditions.

*    Protect small businesses through "community
     rating," which requires insurers to spread
     risks evenly among all companies.

*    Shut down the "paper hospital" and replace
     expensive and complex financial forms and
     accounting procedures with a simplified,
     streamlined billing system with one claim
     form.  Under the current system, 1,500
     companies waste millions of dollars processing
     1,500 sets of forms.

*    Work to provide everyone with "smart cards"
     coded with personal medical information.

Stop drug price gouging

*    Eliminate tax breaks for drug companies that
     raise their prices faster than Americans
     incomes rise to protect American consumers and
     bring down prescription drug prices.

*    Discourage drug companies from spending more
     on marketing than on research and development 
     because saving lives must come before making
     money.

Establish a core benefits package

*    Through the health standards board, guarantee
     a basic health benefits package that includes
     ambulatory physician care, inpatient hospital
     care, prescription drugs, and basic mental
     health services.  The package will also
     include expanded preventive treatments such as
     pre-natal care, mammograms, and routine health
     screenings.

*    Allow consumers to choose where they receive
     care to ensure a better fit between provider
     strengths and consumer needs.

*    Expand Medicare for elderly and disabled
     Americans to include more long-term care;
     place special emphasis on home- and
     community-based care, and make funding
     flexible so that those who need care can
     decide what serves them best.

Develop health networks

*    Give consumers access to a variety of local
     health networks made up of insurers,
     hospitals, clinics and doctors to end the
     costly duplication of services and encourage
     the shared use of key technologies.

*    Allocate to networks a fixed amount of money
     for each consumer, the networks the necessary
     incentive to control costs.

Guarantee universal coverage

*    Guarantee every American a core benefits
     package set by the health standards board
     either through their employer or by buying
     into a high-quality public program.  No one
     will be cut off, cancelled, denied or forced
     to accept inferior care.

*    Limit costs for small employers by allowing
     them to group together and form larger groups
     to purchase less costly health insurance, or
     to buy into the public program if it is the
     cheapest option.

*    Phase in business responsibilities, covering
     employees through the public program until the
     transition is complete.

*    Improve preventive and primary care through
     community-based health solutions.  A
     successful health plan must provide all
     Americans with adequate access to health
     facilities.  The Clinton/Gore plan will expand
     school-based clinics and community health
     centers in medically under-served areas.

Giving children a healthier future

*    Bill Clinton provided outspoken support for
     school-based health clinics.  The state now
     funds 21 such clinics reaching thousands of
     Arkansas children who wouldn't otherwise have
     access to health care.  Clinic services range
     from health screenings to immunizations to
     education.

*    Increased Early Periodic Screenings, Diagnosis
     and Treatment (EPSDT) screenings by more than
     2,000 percent.

*    Helped reduce the Arkansas infant mortality
     rate by 43 percent.  Arkansas' infant
     mortality rate dropped from 20 percent above
     the national average in 1978 to virtual parity
     in 1990.

*    Introduced the Healthy Beginnings/Nurse
     Midwife Program to provide low-income women in
     East Arkansas with access to comprehensive
     maternity care.

*    Established the "Good Beginnings" program,
     which took advantage of new federal
     regulations to provide basic health services
     to more low-income women and their children;
     Arkansas was the first state to launch such a
     program.

*    Proposed and passed a "Health Care Access Law"
     designed, among other things, to provide
     universal health coverage for all Arkansas
     children under age 16, regardless of family
     income.  The law emphasizes preventive and
     primary care.

*    Senator Gore was the principal sponsor of the
     Infant Formula Act to improve nutrition and
     safety standards.


Providing better care and more choice for the
elderly

*    Bill Clinton established the ElderChoices
     program to allow the state Department of Human
     Services to give senior citizens alternatives
     to nursing home care -- including personal and
     home health care, adult day-care services, and
     more -- with funds formerly available only for
     nursing home care.

*    Imposed strict regulations on nursing homes in
     his first term, before strict federal
     regulations were implemented, and has since
     strengthened these regulations.

*    Initiated a broad range of cost-effective
     in-home health care and supportive services
     for people recovering from serious or chronic
     illnesses, or who require assistance with
     daily living activities, to avoid
     institutionalization.

*    Increased funding for in-home services from
     $2.4 million in fiscal year 1981 to a budgeted
     $38 million for 1992-93.

*    Senator Gore led the fight for the "Medigap"
     law to protect seniors from buying worthless
     insurance coverage.

*    Sponsored a law establishing Alzheimer's
     treatment centers.

*    Senator Gore was a leader in the fight to make
     generic drugs more available and reduce the
     cost of prescription drugs.

Responding to the AIDS crisis

*    As chairman of the National Governors'
     Association, Governor Clinton formed the first
     working group of governors to develop an AIDS
     policy.  Clinton was a moving force in the
     creation of an AIDS action plan adopted by the
     Governors' Association, which called for
     education and prevention efforts at the local,
     state and federal levels.

*    Established the AIDS Advisory Committee for
     Arkansas, which makes recommendations on HIV
     policy and program services.

*    Developed confidential AIDS testing in all 75
     Arkansas counties.

*    Al Gore supported funding for Ryan White AIDS
     programs, including research and education.

*    Voted to provide emergency relief to
     metropolitan areas hardest hit by AIDS.

*    Promoted development of a full range of
     services including in-home assistance such as
     chore services, personal care, home nursing
     care, and home delivered meals, and
     community-based services such as
     transportation, respite care, and friendly
     visiting.

Improving the health of all Americans

*    Strengthened the Arkansas State Employees
     Health Insurance Program.  Between 1982 and
     1991, Arkansas' contribution increased by 335
     percent while the state employees' premium for
     family coverage grew by only 89 percent.
     Because the program is self-insured, it does
     not pay premium taxes or produce a profit.
     Currently, for every $1 collected, 97 cents
     are paid in claims and only 3 cent in
     administrative fees.  The $200 yearly
     deductible, 80/20 co-payment scheme and $5,000
     Stop-Loss provision provide some of the best
     coverage in the nation to current and retired
     public employees.

*    Proposed and passed a "bare bones" health
     insurance coverage program, which will allow
     employers who have not provided employee
     health insurance for the previous 12 months to
     offer a package without some services usually
     thought to increase costs for employers and
     employees.

*    Developed key programs to improve rural
     health: the Rural Physician Recruitment and
     Retention Program encourages physicians to
     locate and practice family medicine in small
     Arkansas communities; Rural Medical Practice
     Student Loans and Scholarships provide support
     for medical students agreeing to practice in
     rural communities.

*    Enacted a 1989 law requiring the Director of
     the Department of Health to establish and
     administer quality standards for X-ray
     facilities conducting mammography.

*    Appointed Dr. Joycelyn Elders State Health
     Department Director.  She has received  the
     National Governors' Association Distinguished
     Service Award, the National Endowment of the
     Arts' Mary Futrell Award for Creative
     Leadership in Women's Rights, and the American
     Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award.

*    In August 1992, Arkansas was one of twelve
     states which received funding as part of the
     Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State
     Initiatives in Health Care Financing Reform
     Programs.  Arkansas was chosen for its
     innovative approach to increase health
     insurance coverage to residents and to contain
     the escalating costs of health care.

*    Senator Gore conducted hearings that led to
     the passage of the National Organ Transplant
     Act, which Gore also helped write. The Act
     established a national network to match organ
     donors and recipients.

*    Led efforts to establish and expand the
     National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, which now
     lists more than 200,000 potential donors.

*    Co-sponsored legislation to help strengthen
     rural hospitals.

*    Wrote and steered to passage the Cigarette
     Labeling Act to require stronger warning
     labels on the health effects of smoking.

Giving children a healthier future

*    Bill Clinton provided outspoken support for
     school-based health clinics.  The state now
     funds 21 such clinics reaching thousands of
     Arkansas children who wouldn't otherwise have
     access to health care.  Clinic services range
     from health screenings to immunizations to
     education.

*    Increased Early Periodic Screenings, Diagnosis
     and Treatment (EPSDT) screenings by more than
     2,000 percent.

*    Helped reduce the Arkansas infant mortality
     rate by 43 percent.  Arkansas' infant
     mortality rate dropped from 20 percent above
     the national average in 1978 to virtual parity
     in 1990.

*    Introduced the Healthy Beginnings/Nurse
     Midwife Program to provide low-income women in
     East Arkansas with access to comprehensive
     maternity care.

*    Established the "Good Beginnings" program,
     which took advantage of new federal
     regulations to provide basic health services
     to more low-income women and their children;
     Arkansas was the first state to launch such a
     program.

*    Proposed and passed a "Health Care Access Law"
     designed, among other things, to provide
     universal health coverage for all Arkansas
     children under age 16, regardless of family
     income.  The law emphasizes preventive and
     primary care.

*    Senator Gore was the principal sponsor of the
     Infant Formula Act to improve nutrition and
     safety standards.


Providing better care and more choice for the
elderly

*    Bill Clinton established the ElderChoices
     program to allow the state Department of Human
     Services to give senior citizens alternatives
     to nursing home care -- including personal and
     home health care, adult day-care services, and
     more -- with funds formerly available only for
     nursing home care.

*    Imposed strict regulations on nursing homes in
     his first term, before strict federal
     regulations were implemented, and has since
     strengthened these regulations.

*    Initiated a broad range of cost-effective
     in-home health care and supportive services
     for people recovering from serious or chronic
     illnesses, or who require assistance with
     daily living activities, to avoid
     institutionalization.

*    Increased funding for in-home services from
     $2.4 million in fiscal year 1981 to a budgeted
     $38 million for 1992-93.

*    Senator Gore led the fight for the "Medigap"
     law to protect seniors from buying worthless
     insurance coverage.

*    Sponsored a law establishing Alzheimer's
     treatment centers.

*    Senator Gore was a leader in the fight to make
     generic drugs more available and reduce the
     cost of prescription drugs.

Responding to the AIDS crisis

*    As chairman of the National Governors'
     Association, Governor Clinton formed the first
     working group of governors to develop an AIDS
     policy.  Clinton was a moving force in the
     creation of an AIDS action plan adopted by the
     Governors' Association, which called for
     education and prevention efforts at the local,
     state and federal levels.

*    Established the AIDS Advisory Committee for
     Arkansas, which makes recommendations on HIV
     policy and program services.

*    Developed confidential AIDS testing in all 75
     Arkansas counties.

*    Al Gore supported funding for Ryan White AIDS
     programs, including research and education.

*    Voted to provide emergency relief to
     metropolitan areas hardest hit by AIDS.

*    Promoted development of a full range of
     services including in-home assistance such as
     chore services, personal care, home nursing
     care, and home delivered meals, and
     community-based services such as
     transportation, respite care, and friendly
     visiting.

Improving the health of all Americans

*    Strengthened the Arkansas State Employees
     Health Insurance Program.  Between 1982 and
     1991, Arkansas' contribution increased by 335
     percent while the state employees' premium for
     family coverage grew by only 89 percent.
     Because the program is self-insured, it does
     not pay premium taxes or produce a profit.
     Currently, for every $1 collected, 97 cents
     are paid in claims and only 3 cent in
     administrative fees.  The $200 yearly
     deductible, 80/20 co-payment scheme and $5,000
     Stop-Loss provision provide some of the best
     coverage in the nation to current and retired
     public employees.

*    Proposed and passed a "bare bones" health
     insurance coverage program, which will allow
     employers who have not provided employee
     health insurance for the previous 12 months to
     offer a package without some services usually
     thought to increase costs for employers and
     employees.

*    Developed key programs to improve rural
     health: the Rural Physician Recruitment and
     Retention Program encourages physicians to
     locate and practice family medicine in small
     Arkansas communities; Rural Medical Practice
     Student Loans and Scholarships provide support
     for medical students agreeing to practice in
     rural communities.

*    Enacted a 1989 law requiring the Director of
     the Department of Health to establish and
     administer quality standards for X-ray
     facilities conducting mammography.

*    Appointed Dr. Joycelyn Elders State Health
     Department Director.  She has received  the
     National Governors' Assocation Distinguished
     Service Award, the National Endowment of the
     Arts' Mary Futrell Award for Creative
     Leadership in Women's Rights, and the American
     Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award.

*    In August 1992, Arkansas was one of twelve
     states which received funding as part of the
     Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State
     Initiatives in Health Care Financing Reform
     Programs.  Arkansas was chosen for its
     innovative approach to increase health
     insurance coverage to residents and to contain
     the escalating costs of health care.

*    Senator Gore conducted hearings that led to
     the passage of the National Organ Transplant
     Act, which Gore also helped write. The Act
     established a national network to match organ
     donors and recipients.
*    Led efforts to establish and expand the
     National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, which now
     lists more than 200,000 potential donors.

*    Co-sponsored legislation to help strengthen
     rural hospitals.

*    Wrote and steered to passage the Cigarette
     Labeling Act to require stronger warning
     labels on the health effects of smoking.

*    Gore authored and helped enact into law the
     Trauma Core Revitalization Act, which makes
     grants to hospital trauma incurring
     substantial uncompensated costs in providing
     trauma care in areas of high rates of crime
     related drug trafficking.