Vice President Gore’s Health Reform Proposal Would Help And Hurt American Consumers

Sep 07, 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 7, 1999

CONTACT: Carrie B. Tydings

(202) 824-1786

e-mail: ctydings@hiaa.org

The following statement was released today by Chip Kahn, President of the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA):

HIAA is pleased that Vice President Gore now is embracing what the health insurance industry long has been promoting: the need to provide coverage for millions of uninsured Americans who lack the wherewithal to pay premiums. We also are pleased that the Vice President recognizes one of the basic precepts of HIAA’s InsureUSA proposal: the wisdom of expanding coverage like the Children’s Health Insurance Program for poorer Americans, and using the tax code to make coverage more affordable for others.

However, Mr. Gore’s proposal also seeks to foist the costs of heavy-handed government regulation upon the backs of American consumers. His call for "patient protections" – replete with an emphasis upon liability provisions that benefit trial lawyers at the expense of consumers – would increase the number of uninsured Americans. His call for lowering Medicare’s eligibility age would hasten that program’s pending insolvency. And his call for outlawing genetic discrimination glosses over existing federal law that already makes it illegal to deny group coverage for any reason, or to drop people from insurance because of their health status.

Numerous studies show that mandates and excessive government regulation only serve to drive up both the cost of health insurance and the number of people without coverage. Mr. Gore should be commended for beginning to address the needs of the nation’s uninsured. However, his support for warmed-over so-called "patient protections" and other expensive regulations would hurt the very people he intends to help.

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