Even as the House voted last night to approve a $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt defended the Bush Administration's promise to reject it.
At a public address last night at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Leavitt said Democrats and Republicans mainly want the same level of healthcare for their country, but use different terms to define it and have different philosophies about achieving it.
According to Leavitt, the two philosophies vary between government-owned healthcare, endorsed mainly by liberals, and the conservative view that government should merely direct healthcare.
We need a national strategy for covering the poor, elderly and disabled, Leavitt said. In these cases, the government should pay for most of the insurance.
"SCHIP is a very important program and a very important part of how we meet the obligation to help the poor, elderly and disabled," he added. "The intention of SCHIP was to focus on the poor, it was not intended as a vehicle for expansion to every American."
Leavitt went on to explain that the current proposal to expand SCHIP would increase the qualifying annual poverty level from $42,000 for a family of four to $83,000. Normally those with an income of $83,000 are taxed for being wealthy. "How can someone be rich and poor at same time?" he asked.
Leavitt said proponents of the current SCHIP expansion indicate it will insure 4 million more Americans. However, among those 4 million, 1.2 million already qualify for Medicaid and simply need to sign up. In addition, 900,000 are already eligible for SCHIP. The 1.9 million remaining individuals are above the original qualifying poverty cut-off, the majority of whom already have private insurance. Increasing the qualifying cut-off will motivate those families to cancel their private insurance, Leavitt said.
SCHIP needs to be reauthorized to focus on its intended purpose of moving uninsured poor children to a private market, subsidized by the government. We need to determine who those people are and "do the hard work of finding them," Leavitt said.
Leavitt said he believes that every American should have an opportunity to buy insurance at an affordable price. He said it is "unthinkably wrong" for the U.S. to allow only those fortunate enough to buy employer-based insurance a pretax break for paying premiums.
Leavitt said the 2008 presidential election is "the year to highlight" healthcare issues in America. Transparency in pricing and quality will drive market competition and lower healthcare costs, he added.