Bush lauds Medicare changes

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

The passage of legislation to overhaul Medicare will ensure the system "will be modern and it will be strong," President Bush told an audience at a Las Vegas hospital Tuesday.

At the new Spring Valley Hospital on Rainbow Boulevard just off the Las Vegas Beltway, Bush spoke for about 30 minutes to a handpicked crowd of 200, including Reps. Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons, both R-Nev., who both supported the Medicare bill.

Bush said he intended to sign the bill into law.

Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley, both Nevada Democrats, opposed the bill, as did Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Ensign's wife, Darlene, attended Tuesday's event.

Bush described the current Medicare system as a staid bureaucracy that has been unable to adapt to the demands for prescription drug coverage and preventative care.

"Medicare is willing to pay $28,000 for a hospital stay for ulcer surgery but it won't pay the $500 for the anti-ulcer drugs that would have kept the senior out of the hospital in the first place," Bush said. "An important part of the reform is to recognize that medicine has changed."

The private sector will also play a role, Bush said. Private companies will be offered incentives to maintain health care benefits for retirees, he said.

The bill will give seniors more choices in coverage and cut their out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs, Bush said. While the full provisions of the bill will not take effect until 2006, seniors will soon be able to apply for prescription drug discount card that will save them 15 percent to 25 percent, Bush said. Low-income seniors will get a stipend of $600 a year for medicine in addition to the card, and all seniors will be able to open savings accounts to put money aside tax-free for medical expenses.

Bush used World War II veteran Bob May as an example, noting the Las Vegas resident had weighed the pros and cons of various plans before making his decision.

"He's plenty capable of making a choice," Bush said. "He didn't need the government telling him how to choose what health care plan best met his needs."

Following the event May praised Bush, saying the Medicare reform was "a long time coming." May, who lives in northwest Las Vegas, said his late wife's prescription drug bills were so high they exhausted a year's benefits allotment in three months.

"The new plan sounds like it will be much more affordable," May said.

Mimi Rodden, a member of the Nevada Silver Haired Legislative Forum, which is appointed by lawmakers to study senior-related issues, said she was eager to read the full text of the bill.

"It's certainly time to make some changes in the Medicare program, which is not as effective as it should be," Rodden said. "I hope this bold and rather dramatic change is in the right direction."

Rodden said she hoped there would be a reduction in the red tape that currently accompanies nearly every Medicare transaction.

"The constantly increasing paperwork to the applicant as well as the health care provider is so burdensome it dilutes the services to the patient," Rodden said.

Dr. Warren Volker, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Spring Valley Hospital, said the president's remarks were encouraging. Volker said about 10 percent of his patients are seniors and of those 70 percent use Medicare as their primary insurance.

The reform bill blocks proposed cuts to physician reimbursements over the next two years and instead increases payments by 1.5 percent.

"With our costs going up like they are, our practice would probably have had to stop taking Medicare patients altogether if the cuts had gone through," Volker said.

Volker was also pleased that Bush called for reforms in another area -- medical malpractice claims. In the past two years Volker said his own malpractice insurance premiums have more than doubled and he has seen colleagues quit their own practices or move out of state.

"Junk lawsuits" cost the federal government more than $28 billion annually, said Bush, who added he will continue to push for a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages. A bill with that provision is currently stuck in the Senate, Bush said.

Citing the story of a Nevada woman who couldn't find a doctor to deliver her baby and was forced to consider traveling to California for the birth, Bush urged the audience to contact their senators and ask them to back the bill.

"It doesn't make sense to have a society that sues so often," Bush said. "This is a compelling national issue and I will keep it on the front burner until the problem is solved."

To highlight his argument for tort reform, the president pointed out Dr. Donna Miller in the audience, an OB-GYN who saw her insurance premiums climb from $28,000 in 2001 to $72,000 last year. Miller expects her rates to jump again next year, to $100,000, Bush said.

"She told me about the colleagues that have left Nevada," Bush said. "I remember when your trauma center shut down here, it made national news. It's a clear sign you've got an issue here that must be dealt with."

During a special session last year Nevada lawmakers set a $350,000 cap on non-economic damages with the exception of cases found to involve gross malpractice or instances where a judge decides a larger award is warranted.

This was President Bush's first visit to Nevada as president. When his father was president, the elder Bush visited Las Vegas in 1992 and visited University Medical Center and jogged at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was promoting a message of health and fitness.