President Still Wants To Transform Health Care

The federal government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and for the elderly, Bush said.

The administration hopes to improve health care for the poor by expanding community health centers, and it believes that the new Medicare Part D prescription drug program is helping Medicare do a better job of meeting seniors’ needs, Bush said.

“My attitude is, if you made a commitment to the seniors, make it a good commitment, make it work,” Bush said. “And we didn’t have prescription drug benefits as a part of Medicare. And yet, we’re willing to pay for the surgery for an ulcer, for example, but not the drugs to prevent the ulcer from happening in the first place.”

Bush also emphasized his support for the health savings account program and efforts to increase consumers’ access to information about prices.

“I know when I go to restaurants, I got a menu, see, and they say, here’s what it costs you,” Bush said. “That’s not the case in most health care decisions… I haven’t seen a lot of price postings. So we’re … using federal leverage through Medicare and the Veterans Administration, for example, to say, if you’re doing business with the federal government, post your prices and the quality of service you’re getting, so consumers can start making rational decisions in the marketplace.”

Other steps that could help the U.S. health care system might include supporting the use of standard electronic medical records and changing the medical liability system, Bush said.

“That’s a long answer,” Bush told the reporter who asked about health care policy. “It’s a long answer because I wanted to show you we’ve got a comprehensive plan that runs the opposite of a federal government being the decider at all costs. I don’t believe we ought to federalize medicine, I believe we ought to localize medicine. And the most local medicine is between the doctor and the patient.”