ACP: Governmental Affairs and Public Policy - ACP Responds to Republication Uninsured Task Force Recommendations - Letter to Senators: Gregg, Grassley, Snowe, Nickles, Kyl, Enzi, Talent, Cornyn, Hatch, Sessions, Voinovich

Advocacy

ACP Responds to Republication Uninsured Task Force Recommendations

Letter to Senators: Gregg, Grassley, Snowe, Nickles, Kyl, Enzi, Talent, Cornyn, Hatch, Sessions, Voinovich

May 17, 2004

The Honorable Bill Frist
United States Senate
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Fax: 202-228-1264

Dear Senator Frist:

On behalf of the American College of Physicians (ACP), I am pleased to express our appreciation for the efforts of the Republican Uninsured Task Force to address the nation's major health care challenges. ACP is the largest medical specialty society in the United States, representing 115,000 doctors of internal medicine and medical students. ACP commends the task force for developing recommendations that could potentially help expand coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. Providing coverage to the uninsured, reducing health care costs, and strengthening the health care safety net are all goals that we share with the task force.

ACP supports the use of refundable and advanced tax credits and new insurance options to enable more Americans to obtain health insurance coverage, as the task force proposes. The College is also supportive of the task force's recommendation to improve outreach efforts to encourage eligible Americans to sign up for public insurance programs like Medicaid and SCHIP and to strengthen safety net programs. We strongly support the task force's call to reform the medical liability system by limiting inappropriate awards for non-economic damages and ensuring rapid and fair compensation for those who are injured. Likewise, we are committed to reducing bureaucratic red tape and burdensome regulations. Making prescription drugs more affordable and encouraging more doctors to participate in safety net programs are also goals that we support.

One lesson that was learned by the failure of the health plan offered by the previous administration is that reform must be bipartisan in order to succeed. To this end, we strongly encourage you to reach out to your Democratic colleagues and join with them to develop a plan that combines the best ideas from across the political spectrum. Specifically, we believe that the Republican task force's recommendations would be even more effective if combined with additional reforms to reform, expand and improve Medicaid and other safety net programs, including ideas that have been proposed by some of your Democratic colleagues.

The College has developed its own proposal for a step-by-step expansion of health insurance coverage for all Americans within seven years that combines tax credits with new options for states to expand safety net programs without incurring unfunded federal mandates. This proposal is now reflected in the bipartisan HealthCARE Act of 2003 (S. 1030/H.R. 2402), introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and by Representatives Steve LaTourette (R-OH) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). The bill gives states new options to expand Medicaid based solely on need-based income determinations with advance, refundable income tax credits to subsidize the purchase of health insurance by individuals and families with incomes at or below 200% of poverty. Another step involves creation of market-based health insurance pools, modeled after the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, through which premium subsidy recipients and small businesses would have the option to purchase private group coverage. We believe this combination of safety net improvements, tax credits, and purchasing pools is the most effective way to expand health insurance coverage.

Many of the provisions are consistent with the recommendations of the Republican Uninsured Task Force. Accordingly, we would welcome opportunities to work with you to incorporate some of the concepts in the HealthCARE Act as you to develop more detailed plans for legislation.

Sincerely,

Charles Francis, MD, FACP, FACC
President