Introduction of the Needlestick Prevention Act

REP. STARK STATEMENT ON THE STATE OF THE UNION

January 27, 2000

The stakes for health care this year are large. We have the opportunity to pass a real, enforceable Patients’ Bill of Rights, to expand access to health insurance for the uninsured, to provide seniors with a long-overdue and desperately-needed Medicare prescription drug benefit, and to improve and protect Medicare for the future.

I want to congratulate the President for addressing all of these issues in his State of the Union Address tonight. While I would take much larger steps in many areas, the steps he does propose move us forward and for that I am grateful. I look forward to working with him and with my colleagues in Congress to make progress on these vitally important health issues.

The Uninsured: Clearly, with more than 44 million uninsured Americans and that number continuing to grow, this is an issue we cannot afford to ignore. His Medicare buy-in plan and his efforts to provide coverage for 5 million of the uninsured are certainly steps in the right direction, but they are far from a solution to the uninsured. Comprehensive health care reform is needed in this country now more than ever.

Prescription Drugs: The President’s indication in no uncertain terms that prescription drug coverage must be included in Medicare sends a positive message to millions of seniors struggling to pay their bills. It also sends a strong message to drug companies — sky high drug prices and unfair profiteering at the expense of seniors will not be allowed to continue. With the President’s solid support, Congress should be able to pass a bipartisan Medicare prescription drug benefit this year.

Medicare Reform: Under President Clinton’s leadership, we have extended Medicare’s solvency for longer than any other time in its history. And, under the reform program outlined in his address, Medicare is projected solvent until at least 2025. I congratulate the President for refusing to give in to those in Congress who would use Medicare’s fiscal challenges as an excuse to dismantle the program and look forward to working closely with him and many of my colleagues to fight Republican attempts at privatization of the program. The "for profit" health care system isn’t working for the people in it today. Why would we ever want to dismantle the one health insurance program that works well for people and plunge them into that chaos?

Long-Term Care: The President continues to place an important focus on the serious need for improving the affordability of long-term care in our country. The importance of reform in this area cannot be overstated for individuals and their families who are facing such burdens. I applaud the President’s significant increase in his tax credit proposal for long-term care form $1,000 to $3,000. This would provide real assistance to chronically ill people and their caregivers. However, I must temper my support for the specifics of the proposal. While it sounds great in a speech, unless the tax credit is made refundable, very few seniors will be helped. That is a serious weakness of this particular proposal. But, it is a weakness that can be fixed.

Health Insurance Access: The President also includes two new modest tax credit proposals in his budget this year to make it more affordable for people to participate in the Medicare Early-Buy In and in his COBRA expansion. Again, these are incremental initiatives that don’t answer the real problem of the uninsured, but they are improvements.

Congress and the President have the real opportunity to make tangible improvements in health care this year. I look forward to working together on this agenda.

CONTACT: Anne Montgomery (202) 225-5065

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