Government
Bush administration opposes citizen panel's recommendations
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 2, 2007
The Bush administration partially rejected the Citizens' Health Care Working Group's recommendations on how to achieve affordable, quality health care for all Americans by 2012. Among the suggestions the White House dismissed is a call for the federal government to create a public-private commission to define a core set of health benefits and services.
"The administration agrees in principle with many of the working group's aspirations for the U.S. health care sector. However, we believe the president's health initiatives ... offer the best way to achieve that goal," wrote Health & Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt in a March 13 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.).
Leavitt stated that the administration believes a federally appointed board couldn't define a single benefit package addressing all Americans' needs and that such an effort would constrain consumer choice. Instead the president has proposed a new standard tax deduction for the purchase of health insurance.
The working group, created by the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, recommended guaranteeing protection against very high health care costs -- possibly through state-driven, high-risk insurance pools. Leavitt responded that the administration's policies call for other ways to control costs, such as medical liability reform.
The administration and the group found some common ground on the need to expand use of electronic health records and to provide more access to federally qualified health centers.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/04/02/gvbf0402.htm.
